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THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 



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A PAGE FROM THE GUTENBERG BIBLE 

The year of the tercentenary of the authorized 
English translation of the Bible will be marked by 
the sale of the Gutenberg Bible for $50,000, the 
largest amount ever paid for a single book in the 
histor\^ of the world. 

This was the first important book printed from 
movable type, and dated 1450-55. It is written in 
Latin and printed in Gothic characters, the citation 
here chosen being from Job 19: 23. 



THE BIBLE AND 
MODERN LIFE 



CLAYTON SEDGWICK COOPER 

Author of ** College Men and the Bible " 




FUNK y WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 
I9II 






Copyright, 1911, by 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

^Printed in the United States of America) 

PttbUshed July, 1911 



^ 






©CI.A295464 




AFFECTIONATELT DEDICATED 

TO Mr 

FATHER AND MOTHER 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTBB PAGE 

Preface xi 

I. Why Men Study the Bible 3 

II. The College Man^ the Church and the 

Bible 23 

III. Bible Study Among Men in the Orient. . 43 

IV. Successful Organization and Conduct of 

Bible Study 57 

V. Bible Study in Small Classes 75 

VI. Large Organized Bible Classes 93 

VII. Bible-study Courses and Literature 121 

VIII. The Bible as a Means to Service 139 

Appendix 161 

Index 203 



ILLUSTEATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 

A Page prom the Gutenberg Bible. . .Frontispiece r 

International Bible Group^ Columbia University 8 

Helen Gould Bible-study Club^ Fort Seward, 
Alaska 16 

A Few of the Students at a Northfield Sum- 
mer Conference 26 

G. Sherwood Eddy and Itinerating Band of The- 
ological Students in India 36 

An American Teacher in a Japanese Govern- 
ment School and His Voluntary Bible Group 44 

Robert Gailey and His Bible Class in Tientsin, 
China 52 

TusKEGEB (Alabama) Normal and Industrial In-. . . . 
STiTUTE, Bible-study Students 60 

Bible Class of Railroad Men, Punxsutawney, 
Pennsylvania 64 

American Soldiers Studying the Bible in the 

Philippines 76 > 

An Oriental Bible-study Group in an Occident- 
al University 88 

ix 



ILLUSTEATIONS 

PAGE 

University of Texas Sunday-morning Bible 

Groups 96 1 

HuBBELL Bible Class^ Rochester^ New York (An 

Outing) 114 

A Memorable Place for Bible Study 126 

English Class of Russian and Rumanian Jews. 142 1/ 
An English Class for Magyars^ Taught by a 
Bible Student from the College of the City 
of New York 148 



PEEFACE 

It is the purpose of this book to suggest 
a type of Bible study fitted to the needs of 
modern times. 

Bible study to many people is a dreary 
business. It seems far away from the com- 
mon vital interests of humanity. Those 
who have made any thoroughgoing study of 
the Bible, however, know that it takes hold 
upon the realities, the common tasks, and 
the deep human loyalties in which men and 
women live and move and have their being. 
Should not, therefore, the Christian Scrip- 
tures, both through courses of study and 
methods of organization, be treated natu- 
rally, scholarly, sensibly, practically, and 
always in relation to real life and conduct? 

Modern scholarship is ministering greatly 
to the study of the Scriptures; it is helping 
to make the Bible real, not by making it less 
divine, but more human, more intelligent, 

xi 



PREFACE 

more capable of sustaining faith in the liv- 
ing God. 

EfiScient organization and teacher training 
are also indispensable to students of the 
Bible to-day. Modern methods are not to 
replace devout, Christian experience, which 
has always illumined, and will continue to 
illumine the truth of the Bible. Bible study 
must, however, secure with exactitude the 
facts of historical Christianity, which are 
basic to intellectual, moral and religious con- 
victions. The Bible student must be able also 
to relate these facts, not simply to individ- 
ual life, but also with directness and with 
courage to the conditions of his own times, 
asking: ^'Wliat is the teaching of Christian- 
ity for the state, for society, for the church, 
and for the school of the present century, 
and how shall this teaching be successfully 
applied?'^ 

Furthermore, the Bible study which ap- 
peals to the men and women of representa- 
tive leadership to-day, is possest of hu- 
man interest and attractiveness. It is re- 

xii 



PREFACE 

ported that the editor of a prominent daily 
paper often returns manuscripts to their 
respective authors, after writing upon them 
with a blue pencil the letters, ^^H. I.'' This 
is a brief way of saying to the reporter, 
*^Put human interest into your story." The 
Bible, if suggestively presented, will make 
a strong appeal to persons of vital interests, 
to men fervent in social studies, and to stu- 
dents of politics, philosophy, ethics, and re- 
ligion. The type of Bible study which will 
reach the heart of our day is that which is 
presented, not simply in the category of 
duty, but also in the category of pleasur- 
ableness and readableness. 

An English critic recently uttered a more 
or less just criticism upon books dealing 
with the Bible and related topics, by saying 
that too often their titles and subject-matter 
make no appeal whatsoever to the general 
reader. Such fascinating and remarkable 
material as the Bible contains ought to 
^^ buttonhole the reader,'' as Richard Wat- 
son Gilder was wont to express the secret 

xiii 



PEEFACE 

of success in magazine writing, and this 
attention to style in presentation should not 
be detached from the depth and power of 
the ideas. For, after all, of what use are 
lengthy elocutionary or theological appeals 
and exegetical interpretations of the Bible 
if they are never read, or if they never in- 
duce people to study the Bible for them- 
selves ? 

With such ideas in general about Bible 
study the writer presents the following 
pages. Several of the chapters have ap- 
peared in serial form in the Eomiletic Re- 
view. The interest in these papers, shown 
by many requests and much correspondence 
from widely different sections, seemed to 
warrant the gathering of these articles, with 
some additional material, into such form as 
to make them usable as a handbook on the 
practical use of the Bible. 

I would make appreciative acknowledg- 
ment of my indebtedness to Mr. Eobert 
Scott, Editor of the Homiletic Review; 
also to the Bible Movement of the Student 

xiv 



PREFACE 

Young Men's Christian Association, to the 
Hubbell Class of Rochester, the Madison 
Avenue League, the Young Men's Bible 
Class of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, 
New York City, and the Cooper League of 
Lynn, Mass., some of whose literature in the 
way of constitutions, forms of class work, con- 
ference programs, etc., I have used in the 
Appendix. 

With a keen personal sense of the limita- 
tions of this treatise, but with the ever-grow- 
ing and deepening conviction that the Bible 
is destined to become increasingly for per- 
sons of diverse station, creed, nationality, 
and race, the Book of Power, the author pre- 
sents these studies upon *^The Bible and 
Modern Life." 

Clayton Sedgwick Coopeb. 

New York, May 24, 1911. 



XV 



Chaptbe I 
WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 



The opening of thy words giveth light. 

—Psalm, 119; 130 

If we be ignorant, the Scriptures will instruct us; if out 
of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they 
will reform us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken 
us; if cold, inflame us. Tolle, lege; tolle, lege. 

— King James's Bevisers, 1611 

Lincoln wrote to his intimate friend, Joshua F. Speed: 
'*! am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all 
of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on 
faith, and you will live and die a better man.'^ 

In vain we call old notions fudge 
And bend our conscience to our dealing. 
The ten commandments will not budge 
And stealing will continue stealing. 

— Lowell 

The French poet Alfred de Musset was ''a child of the 
sunshine and the storm''; and when he died, his old servant 
pointed to a New Testament and said to a friend who came 
to inquire about him: **I know not what Alfred found in 
that book, but he always latterly had it under his pillow 
that he might read it when he would.'' 

The testimony of Napoleon I to the Bible as recorded in 
Bert rand's Memoirs. ''Behold it upon this table" (here he 
solemnly placed his hand upon it). ''I never omit to read 
it, and every day with the same pleasure. Nowhere is to be 
found such a series of beautiful ideas, admirable moral 
maxims, which produce in one's soul the same emotion which 
one experiences in contemplating the infinite expanse of 
the skies resplendent upon a summer's night with all the 
brilliance of the stars. Not only is one's mind absorbed, 
it is controlled, and the soul can never go astray with this 
book for its guide." 

Bead your Bible — make it your daily business to obey it 
in all that you understand. To my early knowledge of the 
Bible I owe the best part of my taste in literature. 

— John Buskin 



Chapter I 
WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 

I— World-wide Popularity 
The Bible is to-day the most popular and 
the most widely read book in existence. Its 
extensive use is as wide as the world and 
those who study it are as diverse as the na- 
tions. In eighteen different countries last 
college year, 80,000 college men were study- 
ing in voluntary Bible classes in institutions 
of higher learning. The Baraca Movement, 
the object of which is the interesting of 
young men in organized Bible classes in the 
church, reported last season a Bible-class 
membership of 350,000 young men. The 
Young Men's Christian Association enrolled 
last year in Bible study in their various 
branches 97,232 men. These men repre- 
sented our cities, country districts, railroads, 
colleges, high schools, industries, and the 
army and navy. 

3 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

The volume of voluntary student Bible 
study in North America (28,562 students at- 
tending classes for two months or mor^ last 
year in 490 institutions) would be much in- 
creased should we add the hundreds of men 
who are attending Bible-study classes in con- 
nection with the curriculum of these institu- 
tions, and the 8,977 theological students in 
167 institutions of the United States and Can- 
ada who are studying the Bible in prepara- 
tion for the Christian ministry. 

It is, moreover, one of the facts for thought- 
ful consideration that there was last year a 
total army of 28,011,194 persons, represent- 
ing fifty-one nationalities, who were studying 
the Bible in Sunday-schools of various lands. 

Twenty-seven Bible Societies are printing 
this book; one in the United States, three in 
Great Britain and twenty-three on the 
European continent. These 27 societies re- 
ported an aggregate output in 1910 of 
12,843,196 Bibles. 

It is conservatively stated that more 
copies of the Bible were sold last year than 

4 



WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 

of any other hundred books of the world 
combined. The Oxford Press turns out 
20,000 Bibles a week. The British and For- 
eign Bible Society prints the Bible in 400 
languages. The head of one of the great 
publishing-houses of London stated recently 
that it had been impossible for several years 
for the house with which he was connected to 
print Bibles rapidly enough to supply the de- 
mand. It was stated that the Boxer War in 
China would drive Bible religion from that 
empire, yet the issue of Bibles for China last 
year was 428,000 copies. The American 
Bible Society published and distributed 
in 1910, 2,153,028 copies of the Bible. The 
total annual issues of Scriptures are over 
nineteen million volumes. 

The thousands of men who are being at- 
tracted at present to the study of the Bible 
in connection with missionary organizations, 
and with young people ^s societies, together 
with an unrecordable multitude who, in addi- 
tion to those meeting in regular classes, are 
discovering day by day the great educational 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

and inspirational values of the Christian 
Scriptures, add materially to this vast, un- 
exampled crusade which seems intended at 
no distant date to make the Bible the univer- 
sal book of all peoples. 

Why has this company of men of widely 
diversified races and religions given time 
and thought to the Bible? I wish to deal 
with some of the causes and results of this 
revival in Biblical study. 



11 — What is Christianity? 

The Bible presents the facts of the Chris- 
tian religion. Plato said: ^'He shall be as a 
God to me who can rightly divide and de- 
fine.'^ The president of one of our large 
North American universities in his convoca- 
tion sermon recently said that comparatively 
few people know what Christianity is. We 
think of a noted scientist who, when he was 
asked what he thought about the failure of 
Christianity, exclaimed: ^^The failure of 
Christianity! I have never yet seen Chris- 

6 



WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 

tianity tried.'' One of the reasons why men 
are not able to really represent Christianity 
to the world is that they have never studied 
with thoroughness its records and its his- 
tory. They have never really discovered its 
underlying principles. A student on the 
Pacific Coast asked me: ^^What is the dif- 
ference between those things which you and 
I can disagree upon and still be Christians, 
and the things we must agree upon if we are 
Christians r' 

It is astonishing how much of our relig- 
ious knowledge is taken in a second-hand 
fashion from books or from friends. Many 
men of the church have not really studied 
with deep seriousness the teachings of Jesus 
in the New Testament. A genuine knowl- 
edge of the great religion of the Western 
world is not acquired by snap-shot attention 
to books or sermons about Christianity. 

In North China I found a prominent 
Chinese educator planning to give a good 
part of his time for the next few years to 
the study of the principles of Christianity, 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

that he miglit be able to translate these prin- 
ciples into the vernacular of his people. As 
one pierces below the surface of our rapidly 
moving time he finds almost invariably, on 
the part of men of mind, a real quest for 
religion, a deep longing for the abiding 
and eternal truths of the heart and soul. 
However changeful may be their expression 
from age to age, their essence is the same 
and human response to them is universal. 
The great questions after all are: What is 
the real meaning of the world? Is God my 
Father and can I trust Him? Is man my 
brother or my enemy? Am I an immortal 
spirit? What think ye of Christ? Upon the 
answers to such questions hang the destinies 
of men. 

But these are Bible questions. They are 
not treated in any such fulness or with such 
distinctness in other literature as they are 
treated in the Bible. These questions are 
insistent, quite regardless of race, nationality, 
or belief. Whether a man is a Confucianist, 
or Buddhist, or Brahman, or Jew, or Chris- 

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WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 

tian, these are his great problems, for they 
are the problems of humanity — the problems 
of life. Last year I found a young oriental 
student who was reading through the New 
Testament, after which, he told me, he was 
going to decide about accepting Christianity. 
It is quite common to find Orientals getting 
the facts previous to reaching conclusions. 
^^And ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
shall make you free.'' 

Ill— The Bible and Life Work 
The Bible presents the principles invalu- 
able for the formation and prosecution of a 
life-work. There is sufficient reason for the 
study of the Bible in the fact that such 
study furnishes a suggestive basis for a vo- 
cation. Men and nations must work out the 
details for themselves, but the principles are 
here. Ex-President Eoosevelt is quoted as 
saying that almost every man who has con- 
tributed to America anything of which 
America is proud has founded his life upon 
the teaching of the New Testament. How 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

does the Bible assist men in their life-work? 

A working knowledge of the Bible fur- 
nishes proper perspective relative to choosing 
and pursuing any vocation. It clarifies our 
vision concerning the things which are really 
worth while to spend time and thought upon. 

The college student may graduate as a 
specialist of the first type. He may be an 
expert in his particular profession. That is, 
of course, a high order of accomplishment, 
but a more important question presses, 
namely: Does he know what his vocation is 
really for? Can he wield it to greater ends 
than toward the mere making of a living? 
Every man must decide whether his life 
shall be ruled by principle or by expedi- 
ency. Does the modern man really know 
what life is all about and what he is driving 
toward with such mad zeal ? The fanatic has 
been described as a man who doubles his en- 
thusiasm when he has lost his aim. He is just 
driving fast with no clear destination in view. 
It was a significant and pathetic cablegram 
that the students of Japan sent not long ago 

10 



WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 

to a large conference of college men meeting 
in North America: ^^ Japan leading Orient, 
but whither r' 

Bible study corrects our individual stand- 
ards and measurements. It spreads out be- 
fore us God^s plan for human existence. It 
helps men to put first things first ; to see big 
things big, and small things small. A habit 
of Bible study is a daily hint that ^^man 
shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word which proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God.'^ To the Bible men have come in all 
times to find those life visions, where, in 
Matthew Arnold ^s words: 

The eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain, 
And what we say we mean, and what we would, we 

know. 
A man becomes aware of his life's flow, 
And hears its winding murmur; and he sees 
The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze 



And then he thinks he knows 
The hills where his life rose, 
And the sea where it goes. 

11 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

IV — The Church and the Bible 
To be sure, the Bible is no longer chained 
to the altar as in the medieval days, but it 
has not really come to its own among the 
thinking men of the church. As yet a be- 
ginning only has been made. In certain sec- 
tions of our country we find a lack of 
Bible study among men in the church which 
is fairly pitiable. In short, it would be 
almost a misnomer to speak of it as Bible 
study. In many churches one is imprest not 
so much with a wrong method of Bible study 
as the entire neglect of the whole question. 
In the minds of many men the Bible is still 
a recondite granary of mystifying and other- 
worldly facts. By many the Book has never 
really been discovered as a modern guide to 
personal living, or as a practical motive to 
service. But the results of modern Biblical 
thought and research are pressing rapidly 
into common and universal knowledge. The 
Christian ignores them at the peril of being 
both benighted and ridiculous. A mission- 
ary told me in India last year, that one of 



WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 

the first needs with which he was confronted 
as he arrived in the Orient was the insistent 
necessity of a thorough mastery and inter- 
pretation of the Bible. He found that the 
heathen world knew the Book of his religion 
more perfectly than he knew it. In fact, 
many of these people had studied it, he said, 
more carefully than they had studied their 
own sacred vedas. 

In some way the church must get its men 
interested in the Bible. This task, like other 
important tasks, is not easy. As we visit 
churches in various parts of the world, the 
question arises: How many pastors and 
leaders have really tried to enlist men in the 
study of this Book? The interesting of men 
in the Bible involves able and courageous 
leadership, the study of methods, Bible 
courses and literature, business ability, 
money, sacrifice, patience, and, beneath all, 
an unquenchable conviction that G^od's rev- 
elation in His Word is eternally worth while. 

The church needs able, broad-minded, 
godly men to teach the Bible in men's Bible 

13 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

classes, in the Bible school, and in connec- 
tion with discussional groups outside the 
churches. Who will be responsible for the 
bringing of the Bible to thoughtful young 
men? This is a question which must be an- 
swered by representative laymen of the 
church, by students in our colleges, by college 
graduates, and by the modern ministry. 
Here is a calling of great importance — a 
teaching ministry. To popularize and dignify 
the Bible in the hearts of young men is one 
of the church's opportunities in this genera- 
tion. Without real Bible study the church 
loses objective and spiritual dynamic. To 
the church, primarily, the Bible is the Book 
of Life. 

V--— Modern Call for Character 

Above all the voices of our times one 
discerns the call for character. Politics, 
business, commerce, and religion are under 
the search-light of moral reform. A new 
and wide-spread reassessment of men's 
characters and motives is now proceeding. 

14 



WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 

There never was a greater demand than at 
present for men whose honesty and devotion 
are not measurable in dollars and cents. 
Among men who really shape the creeds and 
the progress of nations, there is decreasing 
faith in that mammon gospel which Carlyle 
said was ^^ driven by galvanism and possest 
by the devil.'' 

The Bible is the first book upon ethics. 
The moral codes of the Christian Scriptures 
have worn well and are still operative. 
Eighteousness, which continues to be the 
eternal foundation of nations, is the ground- 
work of the Bible. The Bible strikes down 
injustice and wrong wherever these are 
found. It is the book of right, of integrity, 
of sincerity, and reality. Its words are 
**true, and righteous altogether.'' 

The Bible assists in character-forming be- 
cause it reveals us to ourselves as we really 
are. It is peculiarly personal. The re- 
sponse of the soul jto the Bible message is 
** search me, God, and know my heart." 
Herein lie the riches of a personal, daily 

15 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

habit of Bible study. Coleridge says, ^^The 
Bible inspires me/^ Carlyle regarded true 
greatness as depending entirely upon the 
capacity of the individual for moral and 
spiritual development. The message of the 
Scriptures is directly related, not only to 
spiritual truth, but to such truth in applica- 
tion to the individual. 

The Bible makes character by helping 
men in their moral battles. It shows men 
their real battle-ground, which is not always 
a field of dollars. It paints sin as it is. 
It reveals life roughened by tragedies. But 
it not only points out the rocks in life's 
voyage, it keeps men steady at the wheel 
when there are no sun or stars in sight. 
Bible study leads to a life of prayer. It 
saturates the mind and heart with a spir- 
itual atmosphere in which high consider- 
ations are natural and possible. The Psalms 
of David have saved many a shipwrecked 
soul with their songs in the night. A student 
told me recently that the following words 
redeemed his life: ^^Tho he fall, he shall 

16 




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WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 

not be utterly cast down, for Jehovah up- 
holdeth him with his hand.^' 

It is, however, by giving added force to 
the will that the Bible especially strengthens 
character. The character of Jesus was 
unique in that He combined high vision with 
the ability to make that vision real. Many 
a biography has been the tragic story of a 
high endowment but an insufficient will. 
"What a man has power to will and to do, and 
to continue to do, decides his destiny. John 
Foster describes character as that ^^ which 
expresses the habitual tenor of a man's active 
being.'' 

No man can read and study the Bible with 
regularity without feeling a new decision 
gathering force in his life. A friend of mine 
has the habit of rushing to his New Testa- 
ment in times of temptation and reading two 
chapters to fortify his resistance force. A 
sufficient reason for the renewed Bible inter- 
est of to-day is in the fact that the Bible has 
always been associated with the formation 
and growth of decisive Christian character. 

17 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

VI — The Bible and Religion 
Superior to all other values, however, 
which the Bible is bringing to thoughtful 
men of this generation, is the value lying in 
the realm of creative ideals. The faith rep- 
resented in the New Testament, the faith 
that John says ^^ overcomes the world '^ is 
the faith, first of all, in a person. The dif- 
ference between the mere religionist and the 
Bible religionist is not so much in the men- 
tal process or operation as in the object of 
his faith. Jesus reached the potential energy 
of the soul. Jesus provoked values. He 
created and aroused thoughts, feelings, pos- 
sibilities which men never dreamed they 
had. By His absorbing interest in men He 
laid hold upon the essence of their hidden 
resources. ^^I make all things new.'^ 
He created for a discouraged and despair- 
ing heart, locked up within itself, a new 
heaven and a new earth. His name was 
Healer, Friend. In His presence there was 
always hope. He brought out the defaced 
ideals. He broke the fetters of sin and 

18 



WHY MEN STUDY THE BIBLE 

lifted men out of the sloughs of carnality 
and commonplace and enabled them to be- 
lieve in the value of their souls. It is one 
thing to say to a man with a withered hand : 
^^Yes, your hand is withered. Too bad.'' It 
is quite another thing to say, as Jesus did: 
^^ Stretch forth thy hand." Faith in Him 
empowers our wills. 

After all, it is upon such great quest that 
men go to the Bible to-day, as they have 
gone in other years. The great secret of the 
growing power of Bible study lies in the fact 
that it satisfies this craving for the recrea- 
tion of the soul's life. 

It may be true that materialism has low- 
ered the tone of our journalism, has put the 
table of the money-changers in the council- 
hall, and even in the church; yet the great 
counter-fact remains, even the search of the 
mind and heart of the modern man for the 
living God. This age is not an infidel's age. 
Wholesale ridicule of serious things is un- 
popular. We find in many parts of the conti- 
nent, in spite of the indifference and easy 

19 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

living of men ^^ untouched by a spark,'' that 
it is a time of search for spiritual truth and 
that men will listen with eager hearts to those 
who have been in the presence of Christ and 
can come saying, ^^ Never man so spake/' 



Chapter II 
COLLEGE, CHURCH, AND BIBLE 



n 



Charles Dickens placed a Bible in his son's trunk as 
his boy went to become a colonist in Australia. He after- 
ward wrote to him: **I put a New Tesatment among 
your books for the very same reason and with the very 
same hopes that made me write an easy account of it for 
you when you were a little child, because it is the best 
book that ever was or will be known in the world, and 
because it teaches you the best lessons by which any 
human creature who tries to be faithful and truthful to 
duty can possibly be guided.'' 

For centuries the Prophets have been ignored as mys- 
terious oracles, honored and valued merely for the pre- 
cious texts and sayings which sparkled like rare and 
brilliant gems upon the dim, obscure surface of an unex- 
plored literature. Modern scholarship has laid bare their 
intimate relation to the political and social problems of 

the day There has been no more helpful, 

no more stimulating exegetical work done by modern crit- 
ical scholars than the treatment of the Prophets by Driver, 
George Adam Smith, Kirkpatrick, and Ottley. 

— Bishop op Winchester 

To the Bible men will return because they can not do 
without it. 

— Matthew Arnold 

The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul: 

The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple. 

The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart: 

The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the 
eyes. 

The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring for ever: 

The ordinances of Jehovah are true, and righteous alto- 
gether. 

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much 
fine gold; 

Sweeter also than honey and the droppings of the honey- 
comb. 

Moreover by them is thy servant warned: 

In keeping them there is great reward. 

—Psalm 19: 7-11 



Chapter II 
COLLEGE, CHURCH, AND BIBLE 

/ — Bible Study in Colleges 

College men are becoming increasingly in- 
terested in the Bible. 

During the college year 1910-11 tbe stu- 
dents of North America conducted fifty 
Bible Institutes, especially for the purpose 
of training student Bible teachers, and for 
the study of the best methods, courses, and 
men, to be employed in the promotion of 
Bible interest among the half -million of col- 
lege, preparatory, and high-school students 
of the United States and Canada. These in- 
stitutes usually extended over three days, 
and meetings were held with all divisions of 
the student life — faculty men, fraternity 
men, athletic students, Bible teachers, pas- 
tors, Sunday-school workers in the college 
town, and officers and committees of the 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

college Young Men's Christian Association. 
In addition there were held large public as- 
semblies where the modern movement for 
Bible study was brought before the entire 
student body. Many of these Bible Institutes 
were attended by delegates from the principal 
institutions of learning in a State or section, 
thus affording an excellent opportunity to 
exchange experiences in both the dynamic 
and the technical branches of Bible propa- 
ganda. The following subjects of a recent 
Bible Institute, held at Iowa State College, 
will be found suggestive : 

Place and Function of Bible Study in College Life. 

Essential Relations of the Bible-study Leader: (1) The 
Leader in Relation to the Truth. (2) The Leader in 
Relation to the Book. (3) The Leader in Relation to 
the Student. 

A Specimen Class Hour — Group 1 : Life of Paul. Group 
2: Life of Christ. Group 3: Social Significance of 
Jesus ^ Teachings. Group 4: The Will of God. 

Why Fraternity Men Should Study the Bible. 

What Bible Study Has Meant to Our Fraternity. (A 
Testimony.) 

Fraternity Bible Study from the Standpoint of an En- 
gineer. (By a Dean of Division of Engineering.) 

^4. 



COLLEGE, CHURCH, AND BIBLE 

Why Our Fraternity is Planning to Study the Bible. 

(A Testimony.) 
Ways and Means of Promoting Bible Study Among 

Fraternity Men. 
Relation of the Student to the Church Bible Class. 
Duty of the Church to Provide Constructive Bible 

Study Work for the Student. 
Ways and Means of Promoting Church Bible Classes 

for Students. 
Some Fundamental Objectives of Bible Study. 
Evangelism, One Great Objective of Bible Study. 
The Place of Habitual Bible Study in the Development 

of the Strongest Character. 
Bible Study, a Constructive Factor in College Life. 
What Can the Faculty Member Do to Promote Bible 

Study? 
Bible Study the World Around. 

It is of critical importance to the churcli 
to know how wide-spread is this Bible inter- 
est among all classes of North American 
institutions. The State institutions which 
possess little opportunity to impress moral 
or religious truth directly through the cur- 
riculum, are among the leaders in this volun- 
tary Bible-study uprising. 

The list given herewith of twenty-five in- 
stitutions of widely varying types, is striking 

^5 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 



evidence of the fact that the college man is 
truly aroused to the value and to the modern 
means of Bible study: 



Institution (Number of 

nien in institution 

indicated in parentheses ) 



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University of Toronto (3,305) 

University of Texas (1,225) 

University of Illinois (2,900) 

University of Pennsylvania (5,389) .. . 

Iowa State College (1,600) 

Yale University (3,282) 

Pennsylvania State College (1,632) . . 

Cornell University (3,800) 

Princeton University (1,442) 

Mississippi Agricultural College (1,085) 

University of Wisconsin (2,800) 

Clemson Agricultural College (700) . . . 

Stanford University (1,247) 

Columbia University (2,736) 

Georgia School of Technology (648) . . 

Dartmouth College (1,217) 

William Jewell College (525) 

United States Naval Academy (774) . . 
United States Military Acad. (419) . . 

Syracuse University (1,625) 

Lafayette College (520) 

Northwestern College (265) 

Emory and Henry College (215) 

Keystone State Normal School (250) . . 

University of Virginia (718) 

Lawrenceville School (400) 



860 


576 


600 


500 


750 


400 


1157 


527 


800 


700 


950 


• • • 


850 


650 


1050 


650 


641 


488 


555 


350 


325 


175 


348 


263 


268 


240 


280 


218 


276 


248 


353 


300 


125 


115 


340 


200 


255 


227 


241 


180 


135 


• . . 


160 


160 


180 


170 


80 


80 


215 


150 


20 


20 



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1 
2 
6 
3 
7 
4 
2 
7 
2 
1 
3 
1 

2 
3 
3 
1 
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Furthermore, this movement has been 
largely guided by the best undergraduate 

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COLLEGE, CHUECH, AND BIBLE 

leadership of our institutions. It is not an 
enterprise for the mollycoddle or for those 
students simply who would be expected to 
be interested. It has reached students of all 
classes of opinion, of all races, of all voca- 
tions. No one can contemplate the sweep of 
this great awakening in the appended facts, 
which have recently been secured from the 
student constituency of this country and 
Canada, without gathering new hope for the 
college, for the church, and for the life of 
to-day : 

28,562 men were reported by 490 institutions as having 
attended Bible classes for two months or more. 

9,089 men followed habits of daily Bible study in 338 
institutions. 

6,156 non-Christian men were reported in Bible classes 
in 302 institutions. 

5,061 fraternity men were reported studying the Bible 
in 120 institutions. 

2,308 students led Bible groups in 306 institutions. 

2,272 of these leaders were in attendance at 305 nor- 
mal classes in 139 institutions. 
800 faculty men cooperated in the Bible-study work 
in 295 institutions. 

27 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

1,252 college men were led into the Christian life 
through Bible classes in IQl institutions. 
33,657 Bible-study text-books were purchased. 

185 Bible study reference libraries were available in 
142 institutions. 

That the busiest students in the colleges 
have time for Bible study is evidenced by 
the number of men in Bible classes last year 
who held prominent positions in college life. 
These included : 

1,522 Members of 'Varsity Football Teams. 
1,454 Members of College Glee Clubs. 

653 Editors of College Papers. 
1,402 Members of 'Varsity Baseball Teams. 

755 Class Presidents. 

983 Prize and Scholarship Men. 

712 Members of 'Varsity Basketball Teams. 
92 Members of 'Varsity Crews. 
1,053 Members of 'Varsity Track Teams. 

It is interesting to note that the eighteen 
national movements, comprizing the Vt^orld's 
Student Christian Federation, engaged in 
similar promotion of voluntary Bible study 
last year. 

^8 



COLLEGE, CHUECH, AND BIBLE 

77 — Church Bible Study 
The church, also, through the Sunday- 
school, is taking fresh hold upon the Bible. 
The following statistical facts, recorded at 
the World's Sixth Sunday-school Conven- 
tion, held in Washington, D. C, are impress- 
ive: 

Number of Sunday-schools in the United States, 
150,455. Number of officers and teachers, 1,544,455. 
Number of scholars, 12,777,739. Total enrolment, 14,- 
322,194. Average enrolment per school, 95. Popula- 
tion, 90,000,000. Number population per school, 599. 

Number of Sunday-schools in Canada, 10,211. Num- 
ber of officers and teachers, 84,675. Number of scholars, 
733,135. Total enrolment, 817,810. Average enrolment 
per school, 80. Population, 5,371,315. Number of pop- 
ulation per school, 526. 

The total statistics for Sunday-schools of 

the world, according to late reports, are as 

follows : 

Number of Sunday-schools, 285,999. Number of of- 
ficers and teachers, 2,607,371. Number of scholars, 25,- 
403,823. Total enrolment, 28,011,194. Average enrol- 
ment per school, 98. Population, 1,624,321,004. Number 
of population per school, 5,680. 

Stockport, England, seems to be credited 

29 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

with the largest school, with 235 men teach- 
ers, 295 women teachers, and 4,824 scholars, 
making a total of 5,354. Two of America's 
Sunday-schools follow closely in point of nu- 
merical success : the Bethany school, of Phila- 
delphia, with a total reported membership of 
5,215, and one at Brazil, Ind., reporting 
4,892. 

The Sunday-school is also recasting its 
methods and revising its appeals to all 
classes. It is paying particular attention to 
its adult department, with the result that 
over one-half million of young men were re- 
lated to the Sunday-school and church last 
year through membership in the large or- 
ganized Bible classes for men. It is not un- 
common in our larger churches to find 300 
or 400 and sometimes as many as 500 men 
enrolled in a single class. In the city of 
Eochester it is reported that 1,000 men 
meet in four such organized Bible classes 
each Sunday morning, in four churches 
within a radius 'of one mile. The accession 
to the church from such classes, both in actual 

30 



COLLEGE, CHURCH, AND BIBLE 

membership, and through many avenues of 
service, is quite inestimable. 

Ill — Cooperative Bible Study the Next Step 
The question of vital moment now be- 
comes: How shall these two great streams 
of Bible interest in church and school be 
united? The college man is interested in 
Bible study in the college, and he is securing 
invaluable training as a teacher and or- 
ganizer. What is he to do in the church both 
during his college days and after gradua- 
tion? The pastor and the Christian Sunday- 
school worker are becoming increasingly 
enthusiastic over Bible enterprises in the 
environment of the church. Do they feel 
any obligation for Bible study in the pre- 
paratory school or college when the church 
is located in a college town? Are they think- 
ing and planning to give the students of the 
college a definite place in church Bible pro- 
grams? These questions suggest the next 
step in the advanced Bible movement of our 
times. 

31 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

I suggest five ways by whicli such indis- 
pensable union may be accomplished. These 
hints are based upon work now in progress 
in various places, and which is bringing to- 
gether the church and college in Bible study. 

IV — How Can the Church and School 
Work Together? 
First — A cooperating committee consist- 
ing of five or six members in a college town, 
including pastor, Sunday-school superin- 
tendent, faculty man, a student leader of 
the college Bible movement, and the general 
secretary of the college Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, when such an officer is em- 
ployed. At Ames, Iowa, where Iowa State 
College is located, such a committee has been 
able to correlate the Bible work for students 
in a successful manner. "When I visited this 
institution recently, 160 students were meet- 
ing in Bible classes in the church, and at least 
400 were in classes in the college environ- 
ment. Each section knew what the other 
section was doing. Bible courses and meth- 

S2 



COLLEGE, CHURCH, AND BIBLE 

ods were suited to students meeting in 
churches, as to students meeting on the cam- 
pus. Pastors were helping in the college 
Bible classes and the student workers were 
cooperating in forming and promoting the 
church classes. 

Second — Enlistment of college graduates 
in church Bible study in our large cities. 
Many a city pastor writes to me asking how 
he can obtain and maintain the interest and 
service of college alumni in the Bible cause 
of the city church. 

One of the first needs is to study the local 
church needs relative to engaging college 
men's attention. Has the church something 
concrete and practical enough to engage the 
graduate's time and sacrifice? He is used 
to definite tasks and often conducts Bible 
campaigns of some proportion in college. 
He responds when he is invited to take 
specific work, such as leading Bible groups 
or forming boys' clubs for study, service, and 
athletics. The college man, fresh from school, 
enjoys studying and applying the social 

33 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

principles of Christianity. He would be 
lured into taking leadership of such Bible 
movements in the church as those of organ- 
izing and leading campaigns for small Bible 
classes ; forming large organized Bible classes 
for men ; training Bible teachers in the life of 
Christ ; or in the social and political teachings 
of the Bible; securing up-to-date reference 
books for Sunday-school classes; organizing 
young people's societies for Bible study and 
mission study; and assisting in making serv- 
iceable the Bible study in the church by en- 
listing Bible-class members in social, re- 
ligious, or mission work in the town. 

The definite and valuable contribution 
rendered by college graduates in New York 
City, under the leadership of Mr. Orrin 
Cocks, graduate secretary of the New York 
City Intercollegiate Young Men's Christian 
Association, may be stimulating to those in- 
terested in this problem: 

A Cornell man, a member of the Committee of the 
Graduate Department, has seen the opportunity to serve 
Christ during the past years in a more satisfactory way 

34 



COLLEGE, CHURCH. AND BIBLE 

than as an engineer, and has taken a position as sec- 
retary in a Young Men's Christian Association outside 
of New York. 

Another graduate of very good family has had his 
eyes opened to the social needs of the city through con- 
versations, trips, and work, and has lately become a 
director of a settlement among the needy. 

A technology graduate said, after a trip among the 
missions, settlements, and tenements on the East Side, 
that he had received more from that trip than from any 
course he had taken in college. 

An Oberlin man decided, after several weeks ' discus- 
sion of moral problems of the day at the Graduate 
House, that he would give his spare time to an East 
Side settlement, and is now in residence. 

A Cornell man, who was somewhat careless and in- 
different in college, has been slowly coming to a reali- 
zation of his religious needs, and was approached about 
a definite bit of work. In the course of the conversa- 
tion, he agreed that this was the one thing he needed, 
and is now growing into the lives of a number of young 
men in a Brooklyn Settlement. 

Third — Training classes in colleges taught 
by ministers and leading laymen who are 
college graduates. 

Last college year there were 2,308 stu- 
dents leading Bible groups in North Amer- 
ican colleges. Such students must be trained 

35 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

if the groups are to succeed in maintaining 
the interest of the men through the year. 
There were 305 Bible-training classes in col- 
leges last year ; there should have been double 
the number to cover adequately the different 
courses of study pursued. Here is the oppor- 
tunity for men of mature minds and special 
Bible training. A clergyman would hardly 
have a greater, a more multiplying, or a more 
strategic privilege than that of meeting for 
an hour of training each week ten young stu- 
dent Bible teachers, who in turn are to teach 
100 other students. Many ministers are at 
present helping to solve the question of the 
relation of the church and college in their 
communities by interesting themselves in stu- 
dents, and, in person, forming a living bond 
between town and gown. 

Fourth — Faculty men teaching Bible 
classes and training classes in the church. 
The church should find teachers of the Bible 
in college professors and in college instruct- 
ors. At a recent meeting of faculty men, 
which I attended in a large State university, 

36 




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COLLEGE, CHURCH, AND BIBLE 

fourteen professors volunteered to teach 
Bible classes, a number of them saying they 
had for some time been desirous to do some- 
thing of this sort, but had not before been 
confronted by a definite call to a definite 
class. There were 800 such professors ac- 
tively engaged in Bible-study organization 
and teaching in the colleges last year. There 
were, however, several thousand additional 
Christian faculty men whose life work is 
teaching, who were not enlisted in teaching 
the greatest literature in the world — the 
Book wherein, Carlyle said, ^^for thousands 
of years the spirit of man has found light 
and nourishment, and the response to what- 
ever was deepest in his heart. ^' 

A little inquiry on the part of church- 
members would discover the men from the 
faculty who would be best fitted for such 
Bible teaching in the church. Many college 
professors of my acquaintance are teaching 
the Bible in university towns with church 
denominations other than their own. As a 
certain professor exprest it: ^^I am inter- 

37 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

ested in presenting the Bible to people who 
have not discovered it, more than I am in- 
terested in the name of the church where I 
teach/' 

Fifth — Appointment of pastors and Sun- 
day-school superintendents who can interest 
college people. In the final analysis coopera- 
tive success is personal success. Some pas- 
tors and some superintendents never get the 
cooperation of college men or faculty men 
because their type does not attract the aca- 
demic constituency. This may be the fault of 
the college community equally with the 
church community. However, it is one of 
the most stubborn and apparent facts in the 
way of this successful Bible cooperation in 
many sections of the world. You can get 
the college man's respect at long range, but 
you will seldom get his active, glad service 
in a college church whose pastor and type 
of workers are utterly unlike his type in 
their attitude of mind and methods of work. 
Sympathetic and intelligent appreciation and 
breadth of view must be added to depth of 

38 



COLLEGE, CHURCH, AND BIBLE 

conviction on both sides, if we are to secure 
such union of education and religion as the 
Bible needs in our time. I realize that we 
are near the heart of our difficulty here, and 
that it is a matter for church councils and 
synods and local parishes. It is a question 
which is lifted out of triteness and inepti- 
tude because of its transcendent importance. 
The pastor himself — his kind, his example, 
his temper, his ability — yes, the spirit of the 
church as a whole in a given community, these 
are the facts which concern first and chiefly 
the college man, the church, and the Bible. 



Chapter III 

BIBLE STUDY AMONG MEN IN THE 
OEIENT 



41 



Written in the East, tliese characters live forever in 
the West; written in one province, they pervade the 
world; penned in rude times, they are prized more and 
more as civilization advances; product of antiquity, they 
come home to the business and bosoms of men, women, and 
children in modern days. Then is it any exaggeration to 
sav that the ' ' characters of Scripture are a marvel of the 
mind''? 

— Egbert Louis Stevenson 

Consider the great historical fact that for three cen- 
turies this book has been woven into the life of all that 
is best and noblest in English history; that it has become 
the national epic of Britain, and is familiar to noble and 
simple from John o' Groat's House to Land's End, as 
Dante and Tasso were once to the Italians; that it is 
written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds 
in exquisite beauties of a merely literary form; and, fi- 
nally, that it forbids the veriest hind who never left his 
village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries 
and other civilizations, and of a great past, stretching 
back to the furthest limits of the oldest nations of the 
world. 

By the study of what other book could children be so 
much humanized, and made to feel that each figure in 
that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but 
a momentary space in the interval between two eternities, 
and earns the blessings or the curses of all time, according 
to its efforts to do good and hate evil, even as they also 
are earning their payment for their work? 

— Huxley 

It lives on the ear like a music that can never be for- 
gotten, like the sound of church-bells which the convert 
scarcely knows how he can forego. . . . The memory 
of the dead passes into it. The potent traditions of child- 
hood are stereotyped in its verses. It is the representative 
of a man's best moments; all that there is about him of 
soft and gentle and pure and penitent and good speaks to 
him forever out of his English Bible. It is his sacred 
thing which doubt never dimmed and controversy never 
soiled; and in the length and breadth of the land there 
is not a Protestant with one spark of religiousness about 
him whose spiritual biography is not in his Saxon Bible. 

— Fabeb 



Chapteb III 

BIBLE STUDY AMONG MEN IN THE 
OEIENT 

I — Signs of Awakening Bible Interest 

The Bible is rapidly acquiring a position 
of preeminence among the college men of 
the East. In three nations of the Orient 
during the past year national committees of 
Bible scholars have been formed with the 
express purpose of preparing, in the native 
languages, Bible courses and literature suit- 
able for Bible students. 

In Japan the first result of this Bible 
committee ^s work has been a course of 
studies in Japanese on ^^The Social Teach- 
ings of Jesus, '^ prepared by Professor Y. 
Chiba. This Bible course has been arranged 
especially for use in small groups. It is the 
first series of studies which has been written 
with this design for Japanese students. A 
booklet has also been issued by another 

43 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

member of this committee, Professor H. 
Yoshizaki, entitled ^^ Bible Study in Small 
Groups.'' Still another booklet by Pres- 
ident King, of Oberlin, has been translated 
by Mr. N. Niwa, the title of which is ^^ Bible 
Study the Great Way Into Life's Values." 

In the city of Shanghai in the autumn of 
1910 a Bible institute, held for three days, 
was attended by 3,000 Chinese young men. 
An extensive series of Bible institutes sim- 
ilar to this one was arranged with much 
care for the next college year. These insti- 
tutes will reach the chief student life of the 
empire of China. 

During my visit at the city of Seoul, in 
Korea, I found the Bible to be the chief 
book of this nation. Great difficulty is ex- 
perienced in furnishing enough Bibles at 
twenty-two cents apiece, to supply the Ko- 
reans. A few years ago one church ordered 
20,000 copies of the New Testament. The 
publishing of these books was delayed for a 
brief time, with the result that every copy 
was sold before a single one was printed. 

44 




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In one meeting in the city of Seoul I saw 
655 Koreans enroll themselves in Bible 
classes. A training class for teachers was 
formed, with a membership of thirty-five 
educated men, led by Mr. Ye Sang Chai, one 
of the leading scholars in that country. 

In India the Bible is rapidly becoming 
the most valued of all sacred books. For 
several years Pandita Eamabai, perhaps the 
most learned woman in India, has been en- 
gaging the services of fifty workers, with 
her own printing establishment, for the 
translation of the Bible, and the making of 
a commentary upon the same, for the 
eighteen million Indians who speak her 
native language, the Maratha. A Brahman 
professor, who presided at a student meet- 
ing that I addrest in the city of Lahore, 
North India, speaking to an audience com- 
posed almost entirely of Hindu, Moham- 
medan, and Parsee students, exclaimed: ^^I 
have read through the Bible carefully, not 
once, but many times. I consider the Sermon 
on the Mount one of the greatest pieces of 

45 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

moral and religious literature in the world. I 
venture to say that the students of India 
know the Bible better than they know any 
sacred book of Hinduism/' 

II — National Bible Secretaries 
In view of such facts as these, it is of the 
most striking significance that national Bible 
secretaries have been appointed to give their 
entire time and attention to the supervision 
and promotion of student Bible study, in 
each of the three sections of the Orient — 
India, China and Korea, and Japan. These 
men, already in close touch with the great 
student Bible movements of North America 
and Europe, plan to devote their lives to a 
thoroughgoing study of that spirit and 
method of Bible study best adapted to the 
life and development of these oriental na- 
tions. One of these recently appointed spe- 
cial Bible secretaries from the West is spend- 
ing a year in language-study in order to be 
able to present the Bible to the people in 
their own tongue. 

46 



BIBLE STUDY IN THE ORIENT 

III — Bible Literature and Teachers 
The whole matter of native Biblical liter- 
ature, of which these nations are in such 
peculiar need at present, will be among the 
first things considered. No mere translation 
of Western Bible-study books will be ad- 
equate to meet the demands of these Eastern 
peoples. Literature must be prepared by- 
men whose knowledge of the life of these 
nations is both inherent and trained. 

A great progress will be noted, also, dur- 
ing the next decade in the Orient in the 
training of expert Bible teachers. During 
a six weeks' Bible campaign in China and 
Korea, not less than 3,000 students were en- 
gaged in Bible study. This number might 
have been increased many-fold had there 
been trained Bible teachers to accept 
leadership in the classes. The group plan 
of study is especially consistent with the 
Oriental love of discussion and argument; 
but this system in the East, as well as in 
the West, is dependent upon efficient 
agencies for the training of teachers. Let- 

4T 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

ters from the Orient confirm the fact that 
the leaders of the Bible work among the 
tens of thousands of students of these na- 
tions are keenly alive to this particular need. 
This fact is evinced in the formation of 
teacher training classes in the student cen- 
ters, and in the general preparation for Bible- 
training institutes. 

IV — Bible Evangelism 
It is, however, as an evangelizing agency 
that the Bible promises to be an outstanding 
influence in the next generation of students 
in Eastern Asia. An old Brahman in Cal- 
cutta said to me, ^^The Bible will stir the 
conscience of India — the conscience which 
has been slumbering through thousands of 
years — and India will awake to Christian- 
ity.^' One Christian worker among students 
in the city of Calcutta told me of scores of 
Hindu students who had come to him, one 
by one, to study with him, for an hour, the 
English Bible, and to discuss the most vital 
questions of their personal lives. Among 

48 



BIBLE STUDY IN THE ORIENT 

these men he also pointed out a goodly num- 
ber of thoughtful students, who, through the 
influence of such personal conversations, 
had been led to accept discipleship with the 
great Oriental Teacher. 

In the city of Allahabad an Oxford grad- 
uate related to me his experience with a 
Brahman student who read the Bible with 
him for over a year. Especial attention was 
given to the life and teaching of Jesus. No 
reference was made to the personal accept- 
ance of Christ on the part of this Brahman 
student. At the end of the year, however, 
the teacher said one day to his Hindu 
scholar, ^^What do you think of Jesus 
Christ?'' The answer came slowly, but with 
peculiar certainty, ^^I think that Jesus 
Christ was the greatest man who ever lived. 
I think — yes, I know — He is my Savior." 

A competent intellectual and spiritual in- 
terpretation of the Bible, as a result of this 
movement, will greatly further the cause of 
evangelism among thinking men in the East. 
A very representative scholar and teacher 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

of the city of Tientsin, Chang Po Ling, re- 
cently accepted Christianity. It is noteworthy 
that he has been retained as the head of a 
government school, subsequent to his conver- 
sion. He exprest to me his ambition to be- 
come so proficient in the knowledge of the 
principles of Christianity, through the study 
of the Bible, that he might be able to trans- 
late into the Chinese language the central 
meaning of the Christian religion. 

One is profoundly imprest, also, in Korea 
by going into churches that are literally 
packed to the doors, many containing over a 
thousand men and women, listening to the 
exposition of the Bible. The vivid appre- 
hension of the deep principles of this book 
is now the predominant influence in bring- 
ing Korea, as a nation, nearer perhaps to 
an entire Christian evangelization than any 
nation on the face of the earth. At least, a 
traveler in this country is deeply imprest 
with the fact of the tremendous power of the 
Bible when it is with transparent honesty ac- 
cepted in its simplest terms. 

50 



BIBLE STUDY IN THE ORIENT 

V — Spiritual Reality 

It does not take unusual prophetic powers 
to realize also the wonderful use of the Bible 
in the East as a means for developing spiri- 
tual reality and power in personal living. I 
was deeply imprest to find, in the city of 
Nagasaki, fifty students in one of the col- 
leges, arising at six o'clock each morning 
and spending an hour, singly and together, 
in prayer and Bible study. It was not sur- 
prizing to find an unusual depth of serious 
motive and ideal among the men of this in- 
stitution. These students had discovered not 
simply the knowledge, but the power of the 
Bible. 

It is not unusual to see Christian Indians 
studying their Bibles on the trains, and 
often in the hostels, where Bible classes are 
being formed. One Christian worker ex- 
plained to me how the entire atmosphere of 
one of his student hostels had been changed 
through the influence of a Bible group, which 
met each week in one of the students' rooms. 
While comparatively few students have as 

51 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

yet been brought to accept Christianity 
openly, the spirit of student relationships 
has often been entirely transformed. In the 
main hall of the Association Building at Cal- 
cutta, one may read the significant words, 
^'Bought by the power of prayer.'' 

A Chinese student in one of the colleges 
of South China was marked off from other 
leaders by the audacity of his attempts to 
make the Bible real among his fellow stu- 
dents. I asked him how he came to be so 
much more interested than the other stu- 
dents. He answered, ^^I have studied for a 
year the spirit and method of Jesus Christ.'' 
I was told that he kept with great serious- 
ness a half hour each day for the study of 
the life of Christ. The impression of this 
student's life was extraordinary. 

After all, the great question of the East, 
as well as of the West, is the question of 
character. Whether we think of the confused 
political questions of India, the intricate com- 
mercial relationships of China, the proper 
industrial development of Korea, or the 

52 



> 



I 



I 



BIBLE STUDY IN THE OEIENT 

striking military and social evolution of 
Japan — all these are subjects which are di- 
rectly affected by the influence of the teach- 
ings of the Bible upon conduct. As one of 
our own great political leaders said not long 
ago, ^^The questions that decide the success 
of men in the present age are, ^Will the in- 
dividual lieT ^Will he steal ?^ 'Is he pure in 
heart r ^' We are utterly convinced that no 
man can habitually follow the custom of 
daily Bible study in serious meditation and 
communion with God, without achieving in 
his own life the preeminent qualities which 
made the life of Jesus immortal. 

The East needs, supremely, at this time 
the embodiment in the lives of men of the 
chief message of the Bible — the love of God. 
I shall not soon forget the meeting with a 
great pioneer missionary leader in India. 
For thirty-five years he has poured out his 
life for that people; and altho he has been 
obliged often to beat his way against great 
odds, through all the years he has kept his 
spirit of '^ sweetness and light,'' being 

53 



1 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

known far and wide for his great loving- 
kindness. I said to him, ^^What is the great 
influence for the making of Christianity a 
fact among the educated men of India T' 
His answer came instantly, ^'Men whose 
hearts are filled with the love of God/' I 
saw this great man address an audience of 
Indians. I saw him at the close, as he took 
them by the hand and looked into their eyes. 
I was convinced that he had found the su- 
preme secret for the evangelization of the 
world. 



^4 



Chapteb IV 

SUCCESSFUL OEQANIZATION AND 
CONDUCT OF BIBLE STUDY 



ss 



And that the English Version, especially of the New 
Testament, which bears in particular the impress of the 
genius of Tyndale, is a greater literary work than the 
original Greek will be generally allowed. Lord Tennyson, 
we are told in his biography, would sometimes insist on 
this point. Some parts of the New Testament, he would 
say, are finer in English than in Greek, especially in the 
Apocalypse; and he would instance the passage, **And 
again they said Alleluia: and her smoke rose up for ever 
and ever. ^' Magnificent conception, he would say — dark- 
ness and fire rolling together, for ever and ever! Or he 
would quote with boundless admiration the opening pas- 
sage of the tenth chapter, ^'And I saw another mighty 
angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and 
a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were 
the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.'' 

— John Vaughn: CornMll Magazine 

Match, if you can, the Bible's Table of Contents! 

1. The story of the Fall and of the Flood, grandest of 
human traditions founded on a true horror of sin. 

2. The story of the Patriarchs. 

3. The story of Moses, with the results of that tra- 
dition on the moral law of all the civilized world. 

4. The story of the Kings; virtually that of all king- 
hood in David, and all philosophy in Solomon, culminating 
in the Psalms and Proverbs, and the still more close and 
practical wisdom of Ecclesiastes and the son of Sirach. 

5. The story of the Prophets; virtually the deepest 
mystery, tragedy, and permanent fate of national ex- 
istence. 

6. The story of Christ. 

7. The moral law of St. John and his closing Apoca- 
lypse of its fulfilment. — John Ruskin 

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom. 
And the man that getteth understanding. 
For the gaining of it is better than the gaining of silver, 
And the profit thereof than fine gold. 
She is more precious than rubies: 

And none of the things thou canst desire are to be com- 
pared unto her. 
Length of days is in her right hand: 
In her left hand are riches and honor. 
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, 
And all her paths are peace. 

— Proverbs 3:13-17 

66 



Chapter IV 

SUCCESSFUL OEGANIZATION AND 
CONDUCT OF BIBLE STUDY 

I — Spirit and Method 
An English friend once said to me, 
''When you Americans wish to accomplish 
anything you appoint a committee; if this 
doesn't work you appoint another commit- 
tee; and if this fails you start an organiza- 
tion/' 

This American genius for organization, 
which has attended some of our chief accom- 
plishments, is now being focused upon Bible 
study among laymen. The time is opportune 
and the need insistent. The Bible has been 
severed altogether too long from practical 
experience. It has been regarded as a book 
of the skies — extraordinary — subtle — exotic 
— other-worldly — and quite exempt from 
such treatment as draws meaning and power 
from other literature. I have noticed sur- 

67 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

prized wonder on faces of men when Bible 
classes which have just been ''started'^ have 
just ^^stopt.'^ But why should we expect 
success in Bible study without exertion? 
What reason in wondering that Bible classes 
do not succeed when they are characterized 
by loose methods? 

The following significant answers have 
recently come to me from laymen of whom 
I asked the secret of their success with 
Bible study among men: ^^hard work'^ — 
^Heacher who studies systematically his 
Bible'' — ^^^ never say die'' — *'a Bible-study 
committee that meets and does business" — 
^'expect to sacrifice to make Bible study suc- 
cessful" (this answer from a man who has 
been known to sit up all night with his com- 
mittee to work out the details and plans of 
his Bible campaign) — ^^a task hard enough 
to test your faith in God" — ^^real Bible 
study not all talk" — '^making a Bible class 
mean something worth while in the com- 
munity ' ' — ' ' regular Bible-study habits on 
the part of at least a few members" — 

58 



ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT 

*^ using Bible study as a means of winning 
men for the Christian life/' 

There are two elements In successful 
Bible-study propaganda: spirit and method. 

The spirit of the work is primary and 
fundamental. Dr. George A. Gordon in his 
*^ Ultimate Conceptions of Faith'' declares: 
*^The question of the success or defeat of 
life belongs wholly in the sphere of the 
spirit." There must first be the imagination, 
the sentiment, the belief, the vision-bringing 
incentive. No satisfactory action lasts ex- 
ultantly without a clear and continuous con- 
ception of the need, the objective, the 
^^why." 

No less essential, however, is the method; 
the way to do it — the what? the how? the 
when? the where? and the who? The spiri- 
tual enginery may be ever so warm and 
powerful, but the tracks also determine the 
progress and the arrival of the train. The 
Bible-study method is the bridge between the 
dream and its fulfilment : it is always present 
with successful Bible enterprises. 

59 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

We note two elements which have to do 
with the spirit of Bible-study undertakings 
and which form the rudiments of their 
success : 

II — Large Purpose 

Bible study often fails because it involves 
no adequate ambition, no imperial endeavor. 
Mr. Edison, when asked his secret of suc- 
cess, replied: '^I try to think of the biggest 
thing that can be done, and then do it.'' 
This principle applies to Bible enterprises. 
A business man said to me some years ago, 
^^I will join in your Bible-study work if you 
really meditate a big thing.'' 

^'The greatest thing a human being ever 
does in this world," said Ruskin, ^4s to see 
something and then go and tell what he has 
seen in a plain way." In a successful Bible- 
study program at least one man must see 
something and he must see it ^^in the big," 
as the college men say. His Bible-study 
plan must have scale and outreach sufficient 
to require superhuman aid for full accom- 

60 




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ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT 

plishment. This spirit of large faith and 
audacity made unique the work of Jesus. 

In a New England church, where only a 
few men had been interested in Bible study, 
a dozen individuals, with a vision, met one 
evening in the church vestry and arranged 
a Bible campaign calling for an enrolment 
of two hundred and fifty men in Bible 
classes within a year. They had first 
prayed (a small motive can not live in a big 
prayer, says Dr. Jowett). The money to be 
appropriated, the place, the time, printing, 
course of Bible study, and men to be se- 
cured, were all considered relative to the 
spirit and demand of this invigorating ideal. 
In six months the membership of the organ- 
ization passed the three-hundred mark. At 
the end of the first year more than four 
hundred men were enlisted in Bible study. 
In four years one hundred of these men had 
joined the church. To-day many of these 
members of the original Bible class are 
standing solidly in the foundations of that 
Christian society. 

61 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

Students at the University of Illinois in 
the year 1903 approved of an advance policy 
for Bible study which then appeared to be 
enormous, indeed almost fanatical. They 
planned to enroll 300 men in voluntary Bible 
classes. They actually did enlist 290 men. 
This number steadily increased from year to 
year until in 1909 this institution reported 
725 students as continuing in voluntary and 
systematic Bible classes in this institution. 
One can scarcely measure either the direct 
or indirect influence of such an endeavor in 
a State university which usually affords no 
direct religious teaching through its curric- 
ulum studies other than that inaugurated by 
the students. 

While attending a conference of the 
World's Student Christian Federation in 
Holland, a few years ago, a teacher from 
Asia Minor told me that the inspiring ac- 
count of the Bible campaign of the Univer- 
sity of Illinois had been the means of crea- 
ting a new and practical enthusiasm for the 
Bible in his country. Phillips Brooks said: 



ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT 

^^Pray for powers to fit your tasks, not for 
tasks to fit your powers.'^ The carrying of 
the Bible to men is a divine work. Men who 
undertake it must believe in Almighty God. 

Has Christian faith entered into the Bible 
program of our churches or communities? 
Do we believe sufficiently in the Bible to at- 
tempt great things with it and for it? Jesus 
said: *^He that soweth sparingly shall reap 
also sparingly; and he that soweth bounti- 
fully shall reap also bountifully.'' 

Many a church, or section, or minister, 
could win, and become a light to the nations 
in Bible-study influence, if some of the au- 
dacious faith of Jesus Christ, our teacher 
and example in leadership, could be breathed 
through the enterprise. 

in — Spirit of Victory 

A Bible-study movement to be successful 
must have one or two leaders who believe 
in the cause irresistibly and who are filled 
with the spirit of victory. ^^That cause is 
strong," says Lowell, '^ which has, not a 

63 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

multitude, but one strong man behind it.'' 
After all, the great method in Bible study 
is a man — a man who dares — a man who 
sees the goal more clearly than he sees the 
obstacles in his path — a man, as Carlyle 
would say, ^^who knows how to die.'' 

A few years ago a young man led a Bible 
work in the city of Brooklyn, which enlisted 
over five hundred men in Bible study at one 
of the buildings of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association. He encountered indiffer- 
ence, hostility, and sometimes disdain. Few 
believed he would succeed, but the spirit of 
victory in the man won that Bible campaign. 
Gradually opposition melted before the 
burning zeal of this leader. The association 
building, and the homes of many members 
were filled, one night each week, with scores 
of young men studying the Bible. The gen- 
eral secretary was asked the reason for this 
great awakening. He answered, ^'We had a 
man for a leader who was fool enough to 
believe he couldn't fail." This man saw the 
goal more clearly than the obstacles, 

64 




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OEGANIZATION AND CONDUCT 

Oh, prudence is a right good thing, 
And those are useful friends 
Who never make beginnings 
Until they see the ends. 
But now and then give me a man 
And I will make him king. 
Just to take the consequences, 
Just to do the thing. 

Some one has defined a committee as an 
organization composed of three members, 
one of whom is dead, a second traveling in 
Europe, and the third doing the work. 
Whatever a Bible-study organization or a 
Bible class lacks, it must not be lacking in 
at least one man with the habit of success, 
with ^ ^ two-o 'clock-in- the-morning courage ' ^ 
— a man who is thrilled, as was the great 
Leader of men, with the idea: ^^I have a 
baptism to be baptized with; and how am I 
straitened till it be accomplished !'' 

If a Bible work possesses a large aim and 
determined leadership there are points 
which have to do with method which can not 
be overlooked. 

65 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

Some practical policy is indispensable: a 
policy which will delegate responsibility to 
men and assure definite and concrete result. 
A Bible-study committee is often appointed 
to look after the plans for organization and 
development. 

A successful Bible enterprise in New 
York, which has for three years engaged the 
attendance and active interest of many men, 
was started and conducted as follows: 
One man who felt this need of Bible study 
called together two or three of his friends 
to talk over the subject. Suggestions were 
made, and enthusiasm, with allegiance, grew. 
Arrangements were perfected for a dinner 
at a certain hotel, to be attended by about 
twenty-five of the representative men of the 
church and congregation. Care was taken 
to invite to this dinner men of such type 
and influence as would add both efficiency 
and dignity to the organization. At the close 
of the dinner the Bible plans were presented, 
cards were passed, and the names and ad- 
dresses were taken of men who wished to 

66 



ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT 

join tHe Bible class as charter members. A 
committee was appointed to select a teacher, 
place, time of meeting, course of study, 
program for the first session, etc. The very 
next Sunday thirty men met for an hour 
(9:30-10:30 a.m.) and engaged in Bible 
study and listened to an exposition concern- 
ing the life of Christ. The course of study 
chosen for the class was Prof. J. W. Jenks^s 
book entitled, *^ Social Significance of the 
Teachings of Jesus." 

On the following Tuesday evening the 
members met socially, having supper to- 
gether at the parish house, after which plans 
for the development of the organization 
were considered. The charter members in- 
vited other men to be present with them at 
this meeting, when an organization was de- 
cided upon and ofiScers elected. Plans for 
Bible lectures, social service, and a weekly 
meeting were heartily accepted. 

For three years this organization, 
* through summer ^s heat and winter's cold,'' 
has maintained this weekly meeting on Tues- 

67 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

day night, preceded by a supper which the 
members attend at six o'clock, coming 
thereto directly from business. Often the 
Bible subject presented on Sunday is discust 
by the members in little groups in the chap- 
ter-house on Tuesday evening, thereby as- 
suring individual interest on the part of the 
members and greatly enhancing the attract- 
iveness and value of the Sunday interpre- 
tation. 

This class has engaged in philanthropic 
and missionary interests and is constantly 
training among its officers and upon its 
committees a goodly number of young men, 
many of whom engage in the services of the 
church. 

It is usually easier, however, to enlist men 
in Bible study than it is to sustain their inter- 
est and regular attendance. But it is the men 
who ^^ continue ^^ in the Word who really dis- 
cover the Bible. Bible enrolment must be fol- 
lowed by independent study, by regular par- 
ticipation in the discussion of Biblical truth, 
and by active effort to enlist others, if we 



ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT 

are to really win laymen for the Christian 
Scriptures. 

Among many modern methods for main- 
taining Bible study the following have 
proved quite universally successful: 

IV — Series of Bible Lectures 

The subject of Bible study is kept attract- 
ively before laymen by monthly or semi- 
monthly lectures by Bible scholars. The 
topics of such lectures are as important as 
a wise selection of speakers. I give a few 
titles which have incited much interest in 
varied communities. 

^^Why Should a Business Man Study the 
Bible r' ^^The Place of the Bible in Modern 
Thinking.'' ^^The Bible in Public Life.'' 
^^The Nature and Origin of the Bible." ^^Is 
the Bible Scientific?" ^^ Marks of a Bible 
Teacher." '^How Can I Get Interested in 
the Bible?" ^^The Philosophy of the Book 
of Job." '^The Bible and Literature." 
^^Lincoln's Use of the Bible." ^^The Social 
Message of Jesus." 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

V — Course of Study 

The course of study lias mucli to do with 
the holding of interest. A suggestive outline 
should be chosen and every man in the class 
should own a copy. Much care should be 
taken to fit this outline to the needs of the 
men. I recently discovered a Bible class of 
high-school boys struggling hard to maintain 
their interest in a treatise entitled: *' Bible 
Hieroglyphics and the Ancient Monuments. '' 

I would draw attention to two courses of 
Bible study upon the life and teachings of 
Christ which have had successful use among 
thousands of laymen : ' ^ The Life and Works 
of Jesus According to St, Mark/' by W. D. 
Murray (for beginners) and ^^The Teach- 
ings of Jesus and His Apostles, '^ by Dean 
Edward I. Bosworth, for men who wish to 
give more real study to the subject. 

VI — Individual Work 
The teachers who are capable of retaining 
throughout the year the steady attendance 
of their students usually confess to a large 

TO 



ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT 

amount of personal service outside the class. 
A leader of a large Bible work which has 
continued with increasing loyalty from year 
to year makes it a point to entertain a 
dozen members at his home one evening each 
week. At West Point, where 250 cadets are 
studying the Bible every week in voluntary 
classes in connection with the Student Young 
Men's Christian Association, we find that 
the teacher of the groups usually reminds 
every man in his class, just before the hour 
of meeting, by a personal call. A popular 
teacher of two Bible classes in a large city 
told me he had spent at least an hour alone 
with each man in his two classes for the sake 
of personal acquaintance and friendship. 

A successful Bible class is one that pos- 
sesses not simply a large aim but also a 
true aim. What is our Bible study for? 
Are the results serviceable? There was both 
a clear object and also a definite result in 
that first Bible class of which Jesus was the 
teacher. 

In one of our large agricultural and me- 

71 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

chanical colleges eight hundred men in sixty- 
seven groups have this year been making a 
frank, scientific study of the facts of Christ's 
life, as presented in Mark and then in John. 
One hundred men made a quiet, definite de- 
cision for the Christian life in a four days' 
evangelistic campaign, a result which the 
leader felt was a direct outgrowth of this 
Bible study. He, the Teacher, the Lover of 
men, is the objective, the incentive of suc- 
cessful Bible study. The Bible-class teacher 
may well keep before himself the words of 
Eichard Watson Gilder: 

Behold him now where he comes ! 

Not the Christ of our subtle creeds, 
But the lord of our hearts, of our homes, 

Of our hopes, our prayers, our needs; 
The brother of want and blame, 

The lover of women and men. 
With a love that puts to shame 

Ml passions of mortal ken. 



72 



Chapter V 
BIBLE STUDY IN SMALL CLASSES 



73 



I do not know a book which gives in Such compact and 
poetic form every phase of human ideas as the Bible. All 
the questions which arise out of the manifestations of 
nature have their answer here; all the original relations 
of man to man, the family, the state, and religion are 
known for the first time through this book. The power 
of truth and wisdom in its simple, childish form, take hold 
of the child's mind with their powerful charm. The 
Psalms of David influence not only the thought of the 
child, but he learns to know for the first time the whole 
fascination of poetry in its inimitable purity and strength. 
Who of us has not wept over the story of Joseph and his 
brethren, or listened to the story of the shorn Samson 
with much anxiety and beating of the heart; and who has 
not received all those other hundreds of noble impressions, 
which we have drawn in as with our mother's milk? I 
repeat it, without the Bible the education of the child in 
the present state of society is impossible. 

— Tolstoy 

*'In this Book,'' says the aged grandmother, in Tenny- 
son's poem — ^^In this Book, little Annie, the message is 
one of peace." 

All that I have taught of Art, everything that I have 
written, whatever greatness there has been in any thought 
of mine, whatever I have done in my life, has simply been 
due to the fact that, when I was a child, my mother daily 
read with me a part of the Bible, and daily made me learn 
a part of it by heart. 

— John Euskin 

All the doors that lead inward to the sacred place of 
the Most High are doors outward — out of self, out of 
smallness, out of wrong. 

— Geoege MacDonald 

The joyful life is the life of the larger mission, the dis- 
interested life, the life of the overflow from self, the 
* ' more abundant life ' ' which comes from following Christ. 

— Henry Drummond 



74 



Chapter V 
BIBLE STUDY IN SMALL CLASSES 

I — The Teacher of a Small Class 

The tendencies of Bible-study movements 
in different countries point to tlie ever- 
increasing use of the small discussional group 
as a means of interesting all kinds of per- 
sons in the Bible. Altho the size of these 
groups may vary somewhat, through the abil- 
ity of the teacher and local circumstances, it 
is generally found that eight or ten persons 
form the most feasible number for a success- 
ful Bible group. A clear advantage of the 
small Bible group over the large organized 
class using the lecture method lies in the fact 
that each man in a small group is given op- 
portunity for expressing his own views, and 
thereby advancing immediately his interest 
and enthusiasm in personal Bible study. 

Whether the Bible class is a large organ- 
ized meeting of men in a church, or a small 

75 



THE BIBLE ANB MODERN LIFE 

group of individuals, or a meeting of two or 
three friends, the first essential is a teacher 
in whom the members of the class believe 
utterly. It may not be too often reiterated 
that character is caught, not taught. Some 
one has said that influence is a matter of 
suction. ^^I do not remember a thing the 
teacher said, but I do remember him,'' was a 
student's comment concerning a great Bible 
leader. An old lady in Doctor McCheyne's 
church, in Scotland, said she had rather see 
Doctor McCheyne walk from the door of the 
church into the pulpit than to hear any other 
man preach a sermon. The Bible class is not 
a mere academic lecture-room. It is not a 
place for dispensing moral philosophy and 
^^ greatest happiness" principles. It is a 
place for the revelation of the purposes of 
God. 

Such revelation is most impressive through 
human incorporation of the principles in- 
volved. Bible study, if actual, affects motives, 
and motives are aroused only by men who 
believe things irresistibly. The man who faces 

76 




H 
Q 



BIBLE STUDY IN SMALL CLASSES 

weekly a group of Bible students has one of 
the matchless opportunities of these times. 
This opportunity is something far higher and 
greater than passing on cheerful quotations 
and badly worn platitudes. The teacher's 
chance is to set the current of the student's 
soul toward God and the service of the hand 
toward his brother man. 

For such tasks personal character is indis- 
pensably important. The teacher will be the 
only Bible which many of his pupils will 
truly read. He can teach just so far as he 
truly is. If he is merely perfunctory or a 
professional religionist, alas for the class! 
The true teacher must declare war upon all 
inveracity and egotistical proclamations of 
goodness. He must be careful how he talks 
in terms beyond his own experience. His per- 
sonal religion is his greatest asset. His 
absolute fairness and justice to all points of 
view are frequently as important as his prep- 
aration. His sincerity, his reality, his genu- 
ineness, must be so marked that men are re- 
minded of Him who said : ^ ^ I am the Truth. ' ' 

77 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

II — The Atmosphere of the Class 
A spirit of calm should be felt in a success- 
ful Bible class. Bible classes, like most boats, 
sail best on an even keel. The power of the 
leader and the members is revealed in quiet- 
ness and self-control. Acrid debate and con- 
troversy are seldom conducive to the dis- 
covery and assimilation of truth. Hurry or 
the keeping of the eye always on the watch is 
prejudicial to well-poised thoughtfulness and 
sane discussion. The ' ' inner light ' ' and mind 
of the teacher is truly revealed in his manner. 
His attitude is contagious. He often becomes 
impressive in inverse ratio to his bluster and 
noisy arguments. Some teachers bring the 
spirit of peace and deliberation as they enter 
the room, so that the study can begin at once. 
Others storm in like a whirlwind, and true 
thoughtfulness and devotion must wait until 
things get quieted down. In quietness exists 
much of the teacher's strength. 



78 



BIBLE STUDY IN SMALL CLASSES 

III — Attention to Details 
A class secretary is usually necessary. The 
teacher should have something greater in his 
mind than roll-calls of attendance, the open- 
ing and shutting of windows, and the passing 
of Bibles. 

The real teacher must feel his truth so big 
within him that it necessarily fills his entire 
consciousness, else when it comes out it will 
not come hard and straight and powerful. 
But some one must get down to earth and look 
after the machinery, or the small Bible class 
may be wrecked by inattention to details. A 
faithful secretary can well magnify his office 
by arranging exhibits of Bible literature, by 
following up delinquent members through 
correspondence and personal calls, and by 
keeping the leader informed of attendance, 
criticisms, and suggestions of need gathered 
from the men in the class. The secretary can 
do many things not on the program, provided 
he is sensitive to conditions, tactful in emer- 
gencies, and keen to discern the signs of the 
times. 

79 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

IV — Prayer 

The spirit of prayer is always an attendant 
of an effective Bible class. In a class where 
non-Christian men are present, the ease of 
diffident members would be obtained by the 
teacher's statement that no man will be called 
upon for public prayer who has not been con- 
sulted beforehand. The genuine prayer, how- 
ever, both audible and in secret, is indispen- 
sable. The entire hour must be saturated with 
the spirit of prayer if high results are to be 
attained. Men should be turned from their 
sins to accept Jesus Christ as a personal 
Savior, in our Bible classes. Sham lives of 
alleged Christians should be cut through by 
the sword of the Spirit. The peace of God 
should be realized in sore and troubled hearts. 
Such unusual events are fruits of the prayer- 
ful spirit. The disciples' hearts burned with- 
in them because Jesus Christ was near. The 
effective Bible class is an effective prayer- 
meeting, even tho no prayers are heard. 

I was much imprest by the power of a 
Bible class among the cadets at West Point. 

80 



BIBLE STUDY IN SMALL CLASSES 

Upon inquiry I found that the leader of the 
class met for prayer each week for a few 
minutes before the class-hour with several of 
the most devout men in the group. 

V — Naturalness 
Naturalness should characterize Bible 
study. Every man should he himself in tone, 
in manner, in language, and in appearance. 
The influence of the Bible class should not be 
undercut by the use of traditional phrases 
from which all real meaning has long since 
departed. Nothing is more fatal to the vital 
current in the Bible class than cant or the 
semblance of professionalism; nothing is 
more winning than a perfectly natural and 
genuinely simple presentation of truth that 
is really believed. 

VI — Discussion 

Free discussion illumines the Word of God. 

The Bible class is not a pulpit nor a lecture 

platform. It is rather a seminar, depending 

upon the original contribution of each mem- 

81 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

ber. Some one has described a successful 
Bible class as being similar to a relay-race 
rather than a mile-run. The teacher is the 
leader, not the preacher. Josh Billings de- 
fines a bore as the man who talks so much 
about himself that you can not talk about 
yourself. The real leader should be more like 
a committee chairman whose business it is to 
guide the discussion as the presiding officer. 
He should strive to keep himself out of the 
light. The shadow of a man in the brook is 
fatal to good fishing. 

To be sure, it is difficult to secure such free- 
dom of discussion in large classes which form 
audiences. It is possible, however, to break 
such classes into smaller groups of ten or 
twelve men each, where real Bible study and 
thoughtful exchange of ideas may be stimu- 
lated on the part of every man. 

It was my privilege to lead a large Bible 
class in a New York church some years ago, 
in which we were gratified with the plan of 
combining the lecture plan with the discus- 
sional method. Men to the number of one 



BIBLE STUDY IN SMALL CLASSES 

hundred met together on Sunday morning at 
9:30 o'clock in a room by themselves. A de- 
votional program was carried out which in- 
volved the participation of five or six mem- 
bers of the class, after which the teacher took 
twenty minutes, sometimes less, to outline 
the central points of the subject for the 
week's study. The subject of the study was 
**The Eelation of Jesus' Teachings to the 
Life of To-day." One of the requirements 
for membership in the class was that each 
member should secure a personal copy of the 
Bible course and study for himself. On Tues- 
day evening a light supper was served in the 
parish house of the church, after which the 
members of the class broke up into small dis- 
cussional groups of six or eight men each, 
taking one-half hour to talk over the subject 
which had been presented on Sunday, and 
which the men had personally studied 
through the help of their outline. This meth- 
od was effective to the end of interesting new 
men through the public sessions, and in main- 
taining the interest of these men by actual 

83 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

Bible study, conversation and friendship in 
the discussional groups. 

It should be remembered that the Bible 
class is for the sake of Bible study ; that Bible 
study is not for the sake of the Bible class. 
The class-hour should arouse men to a new 
interest in the Bible, and to the formation of 
a habit of personal Bible study. It will rarely 
do this if the men attend simply to listen to 
a sermonette on a particular passage. 

A question-box and the assignment of spe- 
cial topics may be helpful in arousing indi- 
vidual interest. If books or chapters of books 
are cited for reference, the teacher should 
always go over them with the student in ad- 
vance to kindle his interest. 

VII— The Teacher's Other Work Than 
Teaching 

The apostle Paul would say, ^^Not looking 
each of you to his own things, but each of you 
also to the things of others.'^ The supreme 
and thrilling thought of the Bible leader lies 
in his realization that he has something tre- 

84 



BIBLE STUDY IN SMALL CLASSES 

mendously worth while to do for other men. 
It is more than possessing knowledge of the 
Bible. It is far more than having a perfect 
pedagogical system- There must be the abil- 
ity on the part of the teacher to get out of 
himself into the lives of the members of his 
class. He must create in himself conditions 
which belong to them. It is not enough for 
him to get the truth in his own mind and 
heart, and to get it irresistibly ; he must then 
travel back along the path up which he has 
come, to return with the new disciple. It 
is no easy task swiftly to put one's self in 
the other man's place and to bear his burden. 
Professor Palmer calls it ^*the aptitude for 
vicariousness.'' It was the ideal Teacher's 
unique trait so to place himself in the dis- 
ciple's circumstances as to realize how his 
teaching must appear to the men hearing it 
for the first time. No Bible class will be truly 
effective unless this spirit of mingled sym- 
pathy and sacrifice unite in the life of the 
teacher. 
A man of my acquaintance, who success- 
es 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

fully taught eight Bible groups each week in 
the city of New York, told me that the secret 
of his success existed not so much in the class- 
hour as it did in personal acquaintance with 
the men outside the class. He confest that 
the first thing he did to make his class suc- 
cessful was to arrange for an hour's con- 
versation with each member of his class. He 
thus was able to secure personal knowledge 
of, and friendly attachment with, his students. 
His teaching and his discussion in the class- 
hour was upon the basis of his personal 
knowledge of the needs, ambitions, tempta- 
tions, and temperaments of his class mem- 
bers. 

VIII — Serviceablaness 
Furthermore, an effective Bible class is 
one that joins Bible truth and action. Bible 
study is not an end in itself. It is not for the 
sake of information simply. Neither is its 
objective fulfilled in giving spiritual thrills 
and moral satisfaction or selfish happiness. 
A Bible class is for the sake of life and serv- 



BIBLE STUDY IN SMALL CLASSES 

ice. The Bible is a practical book because it 
treats of practise and conduct. Just as truly 
as neither books nor sermons nor men abide 
unless they are serviceable, so it is true that 
no Bible class possesses lasting value unless 
it can relate men to tasks, to needs, to action. 
The real discovery of truth should never 
leave a man inert and passive and disinter- 
ested. He must act and react on what he 
receives, else the objective of the class is 
lost. The Bible class is not simply a resort 
for curious, intellectual critics. It is rather 
a creative center of vital life. It should be a 
dynamic force impelling men toward new and 
active ideals. The Leader of the group of 
twelve men in the first century toiled more 
than He taught. 

IX. — Evangelism as an Objective 
Christian evangelism should have its place 
in the Bible group. A large organized Bible 
class in a church of my acquaintance has been 
the means of bringing more than one hundred 
men into personal acceptance of Christianity 

87 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

and churcli-membersliip. Over one thousand 
students are led to accept Christ each year 
in the colleges directly through the influence 
of the small Bible classes. 

We have far too little faith that the super- 
natural power of God will be manifested in 
the Bible group. The drift of the present 
age, however, is bringing us more and more 
to the Bible as the means of evangelism. The 
great mass-meeting, with its spectacular ac- 
companiments, is less and less capable of 
reaching thoughtful men for the church. The 
small Bible class, with its intelligent, devo- 
tional, informal, and natural air, should be a 
place where God may find hearts responsive 
to His call. 

Much depends upon the objective in the 
leader's mind. I know of a Bible class in 
which the teacher was the means of leading 
nine of the ten non-Christian members of the 
group to accept Christ as a personal Savior. 
He had gathered these men into a little class 
with the distinct purpose and prayer that 
they might be led to know his Lord. A Bible 

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BIBLE STUDY IN SMALL CLASSES 

class where the temper and disposition is 
Christlike, where the treatment of sin is 
straight and sincere, and where the very 
Omnipotent Savior is lifted up before the 
eyes of men, is a means of evangelism second 
to none. Jesus said : ' ' These are they which 
bear witness of me,'' 



Chapter VI 
LAEGE ORGANIZED BIBLE CLASSES 



91 



When the Pilgrim Fathers embarked in the Mayflower 
in 1620, and when, eight years afterward, the great Puri- 
tan immigration from old England to New England set 
in, they carried with them, our fathers, and the brothers 
of your fathers, carried with them, as their best posses- 
sion — in fact, the only one which was to have a lasting 
value — King James's Bible, upon which their infant state 
was built. It was their only book — their only readable 
book. . . . That book was readable by every man, 
woman, and child. It was the ark of their covenant, and, 
really, they did find within those sacred covers their 
shelter from the stormy blast and their eternal home. 
Their faith was founded upon it, and having no other 
book, you can realize how there they stood to find, not 
their religion only, but their literature, their biographies, 
their voyages and travels, their poetry, such as no poets 
have ever since produced, and that magnificent march of 
history, from the beginning, and they searched and found 
in it the golden rules of life. 

— Hon. Joseph H. Choate in an address delivered at 
the Centenary of the British and Foreign Bihle 
Society, May, 1904. 

It is related of George Peabody that when he was quite 
an old man, sitting in his office one day in London, a boy 
brought him a New Testament for some purpose, I know 
not what; but the old man, looking up, said: '^My boy, 
you carry that book easily in your youth, but when you 
are as old as I am it must carry you." 

I believe that the Bible should not only be taught in 
every public school, but that it should have the first place, 
and every other study should be made subordinate. 

— William Lyon Phelps 
Professor of English in Yale University 

In one of our American cities an actress, the star of 
the most fashionable theater of the city, bought a New 
Testament and Psalter. She said to the salesman: **I 
always carry a Bible with me. People think that we do 
not read the Bible, but we read it a great deal more than 
we get credit for, and some of us try to live up to its 
principles in our lives." 

We plead for a closer and wider and deeper study of 
the Bible. Among the very greatest men a disproportion- 
ately large number have been diligent and close students 
of the Bible. — Theodore Koosevelt 

99 



Chapter VI 
LARGE ORGANIZED BIBLE CLASSES 

I — Suggestions of First Importance 

Before describing the general plan for the 
organization and development of the large 
organized Bible class for men in the church, 
I wish to emphasize several vital points in 
the way of explanation and caution. First 
of all, the objective of the large class varies 
from that of the small group in that the 
large class is usually employed as an attract- 
ive center for the rallying and holding of 
young men to the church through public pro- 
grams, social functions, and special meetings 
for evangelism. The organized class has 
proved peculiarly valuable in furnishing for 
tens of thousands of the young men of the 
community, deprived of social advantages, a 
friendly meeting-place. Its use of the lec- 
ture plan in Bible presentation, however, has 

93 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

converted the large organized class into 
something like a men's meeting with Bible 
emphasis. Yet such an organization has, 
through its class loyalty and enthusiasm of 
numbers in one body, the power to hold many 
young men in the church, as well as to draw 
non-Christian men in a way that small groups 
have not yet seemed capable of doing. It is to 
be noted that there is a growing feeling that 
much of this same general advantage might 
inhere in a thoroughly organized Bible-study 
department for men representing a combina- 
tion of public sessions and small classes. 

With the use of the large class two warn- 
ings are necessary. It must be realized on 
the start that this large Bible-class meeting 
does not take the place of the small Bible 
groups which have as their objective the en- 
listment of men in the personal, systematic 
study of the Bible. Comparatively little 
Bible study is found on the part of men in 
these large classes, and, too often, little ex- 
pectation of such study exists in the mind and 
plans of the teacher. There are two methods 

94 



LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

for associating the large class with real 
Bible study. One method divides the class 
into small groups with individual leaders. 
In some churches these small sections of the 
large class meet for supper on a week night — 
the men coming directly from business — 
taking about forty minutes for class and dis- 
cussion work immediately following the sup- 
per. Every man is expected to purchase a 
Bible-study text-book and to do some study 
for himself in preparation for these seminar 
discussions. This group study is really the 
Bible-study work of the large class, and the 
public sessions with other means serve as 
places of ingathering and stimulation for the 
groups. 

Another plan which promises much is in 
line with the idea of the modern adult Bible- 
study department in the Sunday-school. 
The large class meets with the general Bible 
school of the church for a ten-minute open- 
ing program — if such a meeting is not feas- 
ible the session is held in the class itself — 
the men in the large class then break into 

95 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

small groups of not more than ten men each, 
for a half or three quarters of an hour of 
general study and conversation. In this plan 
the main work of a teacher, in a class of a 
hundred members for example, consists in 
training ten of the most competent men to 
lead as many small classes. Thereby the 
power, enthusiasm, and dynamic inhering 
in a compact class or a men's department in 
the Sunday-school is retained, and also some 
serious Bible study is accomplished. 

It is also necessary to note the danger of 
the possibility of the large class becoming 
a kind of rival organization to the church 
and Sunday-school. The members of the 
class should be made to feel the intimate re- 
sponsibility for the furtherance of Bible 
study in the Bible school, of furnishing teach- 
ers and officers for this department, and of 
joining in the school and the church meet- 
ings as frequently as convenient. If the 
Sunday-school superintendent and pastor of 
the church can be related to the class in some 
active or official capacity this unity will be 

96 




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LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

more easily obtained. Indeed, the Bible de- 
partment for men in any church is of suf- 
ficient importance to command a large share 
of the serious thought and planning of the 
entire board of church officers. The modern 
Sunday-school is in real need at present of the 
ability and leadership which the thoughtful 
and representative men of the large Bible 
class can furnish, and no organization for 
Bible work among men has any right to es- 
tablish or conduct its activity out of imme- 
diate and sympathetic relation to the general 
Bible-study propaganda of the church. 

In the description of the men's class which 
follows, therefore, I would have the leader 
keep these ideas in mind, realizing that the 
large organized class is a success only as it 
can fulfil its function in introducing young 
men into church-membership and leading 
them toward the more vital means of really 
studying the Bible in small classes, which 
method of Bible study has been proved re- 
peatedly to be the plan of actually opening 
the riches of God's Word to individual men. 

97 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

II — A Bible Center 

First, then, we must realize that any ac- 
tivity which permanently saves and develops 
Christian character in men must be at its 
heart religious, having for its foundation 
nothing less than the Word of God. The em- 
phasis upon this idea in organized Bible-class 
work is vitally important. Men should not 
be deceived into thinking that the class or the 
department is a social, athletic, or civic club ; 
it should not be presented to them as merely 
a musical, or a literary, or a debating society. 
It is a Bible class, for Bible study, and in 
every feasible way opportunity should be 
taken to emphasize this, since the thorough 
study of the Bible is the secret of its life and 
the true sign of its practicality and per- 
manence. The countless vain endeavors to 
organize and permanently to interest young 
men in objectless clubs or mere lecture-classes 
are sufficient proofs of the necessity of em- 
phasizing this initial idea. 

Is there danger in forcing this thought to 
the front? Men sometimes are frightened at 

98 



LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

the mention of the Bible or at the word, 
church; the advice is given you to angle for 
them by socials or athletics or some other 
artifice; in other words, it is needful to be 
quite strategic in dealing with men. The trend 
of this teaching seems to me to be positively 
wrong. Honesty, sincerity, and reality are 
the attractions with which to reach the men 
of to-day, for men are as a rule honest, 
in motive at least. Preachers and church- 
members owe a duty to young manhood in 
the correction of the notion, prevalent in the 
minds of some people, that men are natu- 
rally and eternally degenerate and do not 
care for religion. There are those who 
would lead us to suppose that young men 
were possest with the devil from the ground 
up, that they were creatures ^^born out of 
due time,'^ so to speak, and that the most we 
possibly can do is to tolerate them — ^but 
meanwhile to expect very little of serious- 
ness from them. 

Those who have had much experience with 
men in general know that this lack of confi- 

99 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

dence in their integrity is not only unfor- 
tunate and a revelation of ignorance of the 
real facts; but it is, moreover, absolutely 
reprehensible. Men are to-day interested in 
the Bible, and they are eager to study it 
when a method is found attractive to them. 
From an experience of fifteen years of 
almost constant association with large num- 
bers of young men of various creeds, races, 
and nations, I wish to place myself on 
record by saying that I firmly believe that 
no class of persons is to be found more uni- 
versally responsive to direct religious teach- 
ing — courageously, vigorously and frankly 
presented — than are young men. Youth 
is naturally religious; ^^God wrestles with 
us in the dawning of the day.'' It is 
here that the heart controls. The head may 
take precedence in manhood, but affections 
are predominant in youth. Young men, if 
their hearts' truth could be known, are ^^not 
far from the kingdom.'' They think con- 
cerning religious things. Their decisions are 
usually frank and open, and much more 

100 



LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

easily made tliaii later in life when habits 
and dispositions become fixt and when a 
wrench, is necessary for the acceptance of 
new positions. We should never be skep- 
tical concerning a man^s capacity or inclina- 
tion for religion or for Bible study, for such 
skepticism unfits us for our best work among 
them. The success of Jesus consisted in no 
small degree in His belief in humanity. 

Ill — Social 'Adjunct 
When this central idea is firmly estab- 
lished one may have as many means to its 
accomplishment as possible, providing, of 
course, that these means act as passages 
simply, leading always to the main room of 
the house. One of the most important helps 
in the building of organized Bible classes 
for men is the true social. By this I include 
all of those influences in the environment of 
fellowship, such as exist in connection with 
athletics, entertainments, and musical, literary 
and social gatherings within and without the 
church; in short, everything which makes 

101 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

possible the touch of life npon life and the 
creation and development of friendships. 
Fletcher, of Saltoun, used to say, *^Let me 
give to a nation its songs and I can mold 
the nation.^' If we could likewise give to a 
young man his companions any one of us 
could, in the great majority of cases, de- 
termine his future. The most worn phrase 
in connection with a young man's downfall 
is, '^he fell into bad company.'' The young 
man is naturally social and fraternal in his 
habits and tastes; he wants friendships and 
must have them. If the church does not 
afford opportunity for the formation of 
friendships, he will seek them elsewhere. A 
student came into my oflBce in New York 
and said: '^I have not come to you for a 
position, nor for financial assistance, but I 
have been in this city for eight months and 
during that time have not found any man 
whom I could call my friend; I must have 
some one to whom I can tell my confidences. 
Will you be my friend?" Hundreds of 
young men in our large cities to-day are in 

102 



LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

like case. Let them realize that in our 
churches are warm, sympathetic, friendly 
hearts, and they will come to us. Win a 
man^s friendship and you have taken a long 
stride toward the winning of that man for 
Christ and the work of the church. Eobert 
Louis Stevenson was a fine example of his 
creed, that friendship and work are the two 
things worth while. 

IV — The Business Side 
The other chief support of the central 
Bible idea is business method. It is as unfor- 
tunate as it is true that many men enter the 
church from active business life and lop off 
almost every habit of strict practical method, 
of regularity, studious invention, optimism, 
and, most of all, dogged perseverance in un- 
ceasing work. We seem to expect the church 
militant in its earthly career to be as invisi- 
ble as is the church triumphant in heaven. 
Such policy will never reach men. A men^s 
Bible class can not exist for any length of 
time without organized, systematic, personal 

. 103 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

work. It must be characterized by bard, 
earnest, businesslike activity, the same kind 
of activity which wins success for men out- 
side the church. Every member of such 
classes must be harnessed to definite service. 
The young Christian layman must be taught 
that he is not just a heroic knight to bow be- 
fore his King to receive his knighthood, but 
he must in that same act grasp his sword and 
stride fearlessly into the lists. Men need to 
realize the valiant, enterprising side of church 
life. In these times men should learn that 
existence in the church, as out of it, is an 
aggressive thing, as Tennyson says: 

. . . life is not as idle ore, 

But iron dug from central gloom, 
And heated hot with burning fears, 
And dipt in baths of hissing tears, 

And batter 'd with the shocks of doom 

To shape and use. 

There should be conditions of retaining 
membership, as well as inducements for 06- 
taining membership. The password of every 
man into the ranks of Bible-class work 

104 



LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

should be a pledge for some prompt and 
definite service. Herein is the benefit of the 
organized class and the large committee sys- 
tem by means of which one is enabled to 
utilize with businesslike arrangement the 
varied talents of different sorts of men. But 
let this organism be charged always with the 
heroism of modern successful endeavor. 



V — Organization Meeting 

How shall we proceed to form the large 
class for men? 

Let the matter be presented to a few of 
the strongest men in the church; begin with 
prayer ; start with the idea of having a large 
class with a large enrolment in small groups 
for real discussion and study; it is the 
easiest way; a ^^big'' thing is always 
popular with men of to-day; advertise the 
organization meeting as widely^ as pos- 
sible; send personal invitations to a large 
number of men within and without the 
church (the pastor may get such names by 

105 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

cards in the pews and by presenting the 
matter to the members of his congregation) ; 
outline frankly and broadly to the men as- 
sembled the idea of the class; emphasize its 
democracy and its need of workers; build 
up a strong esprit de corps as soon as pos- 
sible. Make this adult class or adult depart- 
ment a real part of the Sunday-school. Choose 
a leader who can lead. Appoint a number of 
additional leaders for the small study groups. 
Decide upon a name for the class, a course of 
Bible study, and elect officers if feasible at 
an early meeting; appoint a committee to 
present constitution and further plans, and 
ask for a report of the committee at a def- 
inite date. Elect a press correspondent to 
detail in daily papers and religious press 
such proceedings of the meetings as will in- 
terest both members and indifferent men 
outside the church. Adjourn the first busi- 
ness meeting with the idea of holding the 
first Bible session the following Sunday at 
the regular hour of the Bible school, or at 
the most expedient time. 

106 



LABGE BIBLE CLASSES 

VI — Officers 

The president should be a man of strong 
representative value in the community, not 
a figurehead, but a leader. He should be 
capable of presiding at business meetings, 
social occasions, and also at the Sunday ses- 
sions. His name should appear, together 
with the name of the secretary, upon the 
class letter-heads, on cards of invitation, and 
on class literature. He should keep his hand 
firmly and intelligently on every department 
of the organization. 

The vice-president may at times be the 
chairman of the executive committee, thus 
relieving the president from such duty. Both 
president and vice-president should be 
Christian men who have the spiritual inter- 
ests of the class at heart. Certain of the 
other oflScers or committeemen may be non- 
Christian men. 

The recording secretary, in addition to his 
regular duties of keeping the attendance at 
class sessions, social occasions, entertain- 
ments, etc., should see that every man re- 

lOT 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

ceives an attendance blank as lie enters the 
classroom, whereon he may write his name 
and address, and, if not a member, his desire, 
should he choose to become one. The secre- 
tary may also present the notices at the Sun- 
day session, and should always have at hand 
a book containing the constitution, for new 
members to sign. 

The corresponding secretary should keep 
the proceedings of the class before the mem- 
bership and the public through press notices 
and such other forms of announcement as 
are consistent with the locality. It should be 
his duty to send notification cards to all the 
members for business meetings, and also for 
the social gatherings and for special ses- 
sions. He should have charge of the mailing 
list, including not only the list of members, 
but the list of names of men proposed for 
membership. These men are invited by per- 
sonal invitation and by letter or post-card 
to the class meetings. In some classes the 
same man performs the work for the record- 
ing and corresponding secretaries. 

108 



LAEGE BIBLE CLASSES 

It is frequently found to be desirable in 
the large organized Bible class to have an 
individual treasury, the Bible-class members 
giving a certain percentage of their collec- 
tions to the Sunday-school. (A class in a 
church of my acquaintance gives 20 per cent. 
of the Sunday offerings to the Sunday- 
school.)' Men will at times give more liber- 
ally to their own class work; in every in- 
stance a class should be easily capable of 
meeting its necessary expenditures. Enter- 
tainments and lectures at which an admis- 
sion fee is charged are among the means of 
replenishing the treasury. Men of wealth 
in the church and community will often con- 
tribute generously to such an organization 
if they see that the men mean business. 

The chorister or organist is an important 
officer, for he has charge of the musical pro- 
grams, which should be of the very best 
quality on Sundays and at the fraternal 
gatherings. He may organize a male cho- 
rus, a male quartet, orchestra, etc., as place 
and conditions permit. It is usually found 

109 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

expedient to secure a fund for the Sunday 
musical programs. Money is not to be de- 
spised in the promotion of Bible study. The 
chorister should be a man of magnetic power 
and personal leadership. He should be able 
to obtain the cooperation of every man of 
the class in the program of song and in 
popular musical performances. 

The librarian should superintend the dis- 
tributing of Bibles, hymn-books and any 
special literature for the day. A large class 
will soon be able to purchase its own Bibles, 
hymn-books, singing sheets, etc., thus adding 
often to the feeling of independence and in- 
terest in the class membership. A small 
library of reference books upon the Bible 
should also be added as soon as possible. 
The sum of twenty-five dollars would secure 
a good beginning library. Suggestions for 
such a library may be gained by consulting 
the Bible reference literature at the end of 
this book. A small library of carefully chosen 
and attractive books is preferable to a large 
miscellaneous collection. 

110 



LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

VII — Committees 
The membersliip committee in the large 
class should be composed of at least ten men 
of ability. Conditions of membership, in 
one class I visit, are threefold: The young 
man's name is presented by a member of 
the class; it is voted upon by the executive 
committee; if the vote is favorable, the con- 
stitution is signed by the applicant. There 
should of course be no distinction of class 
or race or social standing. Care should be 
taken, however, that men are not drawn 
away from other churches. The large Bible 
class is not to deplete neighboring churches 
but to develop men in the church, and 
to reach men who never attend church. 
The work of the membership committee 
should be twofold. First, in the church; 
members ought to be so distributed at all 
public services as to meet any stranger who 
may be present, welcome him, obtain his 
name and address, if feasible, and interest 
him in the class. Second, without the 
church; a house-to-house canvass might be 

111 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

made at times for men not connected with 
other Bible work. By presenting cards of 
announcement stating the object and organ- 
ization of the class, together with a per- 
sonal invitation to be present at some 
definite meeting, the matter is brought con- 
cretely to the individual, and the success of 
such undertakings always depends upon suc- 
cess with individuals. All new names, with 
addresses of men secured by the member- 
ship committee, may be sent at once to the 
corresponding secretary who can invite these 
men by cordial letter to class meetings. 

The visiting or attendance committee calls 
upon members of the class not attending 
regularly. Cards of reminder should be sent 
by this committee to all members who have 
missed one or more sessions. Personal 
sympathy, exhibited by calls upon sick mem- 
bers for example, is a vital factor in this 
activity. 

The social committee should be composed 
of at least ten men who have charge of the 
maintenance and development of good fel- 

11^ 



LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

lowship at socials and on Sundays. This 
committee has charge of introductions, 
receptions, programs, luncheons, monthly 
socials (informal affairs with a varied 
program and an easy, democratic spirit). 
This committee may also look after the an- 
nual banquet at which all of the members 
of the class are supposed to be present. The 
social committee has been useful in arran- 
ging outings in the summer, and in planning 
special entertainments by the class. 

The employment committee, composed of 
eight or ten of the leading business men of 
the class, is a feature of some strong classes 
for men. The object is to secure positions 
for members who have lost their situations 
or who have recently reached the city or 
town. This work if attempted at all should 
be carried on in a businesslike fashion, ref- 
erences carefully investigated, and the con- 
fidence of business men acquired. 

The athletic committee is composed of a 
few men who have general charge of all in- 
door and outdoor athletics. This work can 

113 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

be of immense value in its attractive power 
to young men. Baseball and football teams, 
excursions into the country, sailing and fish- 
ing parties, competitive tennis or golf or 
basketball — all these are successfully at- 
tempted by such classes. Many young men 
discover the Bible via the athletic field. This 
committee is also engaged in interesting mem- 
bers in boys' athletic clubs and social service 
in the town. 

VIII — The Sunday Session 
The Sunday class is often held from 
twelve to one o'clock or at 9:30 a. m. By 
all means secure a separate room for the 
class. Men will thus be reached who would 
never attend the class if held in a room with 
other classes. When the men meet on Sun- 
day, the social committee and ushers should 
be industriously engaged, before and after 
the morning service, inviting strangers to 
the session. The first ten minutes of the 
hour is often occupied in singing led by the 
chorister, the class president presiding. The 




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LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

devotional exercises may be in charge of a 
different member of the class each Sunday, 
thus bringing out the abilities of different 
men. Care should be given to the musical 
program. A question drawer, taking five or 
ten minutes of the hour, may be conducted 
by a competent member of the body. A 
three-minute review of the previous Sun- 
day's lesson may be presented by still 
another member. Strong Christian laymen 
seem to have proved their peculiar fitness as 
teachers of these classes. However, there are 
many advantages in having the pastor of the 
church as the teacher. He can thus become 
acquainted with the men and acquire a per- 
sonal hold upon them which he would be un- 
able to do in any other capacity than as 
teacher. He should take not longer than 
twenty minutes to present the lesson of the 
day. An informal talk bringing home the 
vital truth in the most frank and practical 
way to the hearts of the young men is found 
especially helpful. 
If the course of study bears upon social 

115 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

or political problems, the skilful leader can 
arrange with profit for a certain amount of 
discussion. This should always be the case 
when the class is a small one, or not exceed- 
ing fifteen or twenty men in attendance. 
Questions and answers in large classes, how- 
ever, are frequently found to breed unprofit- 
able discussions, and also to frighten away 
men who hesitate to expose their ignorance in 
a Bible class. The men are invited to remain 
for a half hour after the class for introduc- 
tions and social fellowship. A large class 
should invariably be broken into small groups 
meeting at other times for detailed conversa- 
tion and discussion. 

The class hour is the center of the spiri- 
tual work, and the presentation of the Gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ, which has been in all ages 
the ^^ power of God unto salvation," is the 
great magnet around which the class will be 
drawn. Throughout the organization the 
power of the spirit of Christ needs to be 
predominant in the lives of consecrated men, 
if the best and highest results are to be ac- 
ne 



LARGE BIBLE CLASSES 

complislied. Leaders of this kind of work 
may well ask what are the results of this 
organization in personal habits of Bible 
study, in church-membership, and in the 
work of Christian missions at home and 
abroad. 



117 



Chapter VII 

BIBLE-STUDY COUESES AND 
LITERATURE 



119 



We no longer need to read the Bible with the blinds of 
our intelligence half drawn down. We no longer open the 
pages of the Prophets with the feeling that we are to 
force ourselves, as once seemed necessary, into a mental 
attitude, which was a strange mixture of anxious devout- 
ness and a pained sense of a lack of completeness . . . 
while our intellectual honesty compelled us to feel that 
we did not really understand when we had read. 

— Bishop of Eipon 

I read the Bible often and with pleasure. A Bible lies 
beside me at night in which most of the precious thoughts 
are underlined. I can not understand how many men exist 
who do not busy themselves with God's word. In all my 
thoughts and actions I ask myself the question, '^What 
does the Bible say on the point?'' The Bible is to me 
the source from which I draw strength and light. In hours 
of trembling and fear I lay hold on this treasure of com- 
fort. — Kaiser Wilhelm 

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall 
not pass away. — MarTc 13: 31 

If the common schools have found their way from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific; if slavery has been abolished; if 
the whole land has been changed from a wilderness into 
a garden of plenty, from ocean to ocean; if education has 
been fostered according to the best light of each gener- 
ation since then; if industry, frugality, and sobriety are 
the watchwords of the nation, as I believe them to be, 
I say it is largely due to those first emigrants, who, land- 
ing with the English Bible in their hands and in their 
hearts, . . . established themselves on the shores 
of America. — Hon. Joseph H. Choate 

Mr. Lincoln, as I saw him every morning, in the carpet 
slippers he wore in the house and the black clothes no 
tailor could make really fit his gaunt, bony frame, was a 
homely enough figure. The routine of his life was simple, 
too; it would have seemed a treadmill to most of us. He 
was an early riser; when I came on duty, at eight in the 
morning, he was often already drest and reading in the 
library. There was a big table near the center of the 
room; there I have seen him reading many times. And 
the book? It was the Bible which I saw him reading 
while most of the household slept. 

— William H. Crook, in Harper's Magazine 

120 



Chapter VII 

BIBLE-STUDY COUESES AND 
LITEEATURE 

I — How to Study the Bible 
The Bible has received such laudatory 
commendations from both humble and great 
that no intelligent person can doubt that it 
is a good and great Book, and indispensable 
for education, practical success, and religion. 
It is one thing, however, to compliment the 
Bible; it is quite another thing to really 
study it. I find many people who believe 
thoroughly in this book who do not know 
how to study it. Therefore I wish to focus 
the attention of the reader upon those agen- 
cies having to do with the practise rather 
than with the theory of Bible religion. 

The selection of a course of Bible study 
is a matter of real importance. Such choice 
requires a study of the local field, the grade 
of the students, their previous study, the 

1^1 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

style of class (organized or small group), 
the teacher, the wishes of the class members, 
and always the end in view. There is spe- 
cial need of care in the adjustment of the 
varied resources of the Bible to different 
classes; the selection for beginners, for ex- 
ample, of material which is rich in human 
or heroic interest, and of outlines for adults 
that give opportunity for discussion, ques- 
tioning, or original papers. 

II — Bible Study Rather Than Bible Beading 
It is primarily essential that a Bible 
course should require work — real Bible study. 
The idea that Bible study demands neither 
brains, helps, nor sacrifice, is as illogical as 
it is perilous. A Bible class can be only as 
effective as real study on the part of the 
members permits it to be. To make Bible 
study easy is to trifle with the whole subject ; 
it also portends failure to maintain attend- 
ance and sustained interest. 

An eminent Greek scholar confest that his 
highest devotional moments came during the 

m 



COURSES AND LITERATURE 

most difficult processes of translation and in 
the midst of his most intense intellectual 
concentration, Bible readings have some- 
times been a confusion and a snare ; the good 
becoming enemy to the best, when reading 
has been substituted for a genuine, thoughtful 
study of the Scriptures, 

A college president told me that his first 
and his abiding interest in the Bible was the 
result of eight months of study upon the 
second book of Samuel. At first he was in- 
clined to feel insulted that his professor in 
the seminary should ask him to spend one 
month upon such a small book of the Old 
Testament. As he began to delve into the 
subject, translating the book from the orig- 
inal, reading it, and rereading it with dif- 
ferent topics in mind, comparing it, tracing 
its message, and mastering the outside lit- 
erature upon it, he became truly interested 
and fascinated ; the book began to live in his 
mind, it laid hold upon his heart and imag- 
ination, and ministered to his deepest needs. 
^'Now,^' he continued, ^^ whenever I am 

1^3 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

called upon suddenly to preach a sermon, to 
deliver a political address, or to make an 
after-dinner speech, I invariably take my 
text from the second book of Samuel; it is 
the one book in the Bible that I really 
know/^ 

For persons who truly wish to study the 
Bible I would suggest a series of studies 
which has been used by thousands of men 
of diverse races and beliefs. I refer to 
^^The Teaching of Jesus and His Apostles,'^ 
written by Dean Edward I. Bosworth, of 
Oberlin College. The outline is arranged for 
daily work and is intended to cover thirty 
weeks of study. It is so arranged as to 
assist the student in the formation of a 
Bible habit. The course will be of little in- 
terest without the expenditure of time and 
labor. However, by giving twenty minutes 
or half an hour of earnest study each day, the 
New Testament can actually be discovered. 

One may well remember that nothing worth 
while is ever gained in any line of education 
without the expenditure of genuine effort. 

1^4 



COUESES AND LITERATURE 

/// — Bible Literature and Bible Habits 

Dr, Augustus H. Strong has said: *^No 
study will be of great use which is not 
earnest enough to be regular/' 

Every kind of really successful Bible 
propaganda with which I am familiar fo- 
cuses its courses, its methods, and its spirit 
upon the formation of regular Bible habits; 
as a rule, daily Bible habits. ^^It behooves 
us to know,'' says Epictetus, '^that a habit 
can hardly establish itself with a man unless 
he every day utters the same things, hears 
the same things, and applies them withal to 
his life." Bible study is too often frus- 
trated by the lack of system, migratory or 
hit-or-miss methods, or no method. Biblical 
literature should assist the student to make 
his Bible study regular, consistent, and 
habitual. A Bible course should begin with 
a definite subject, it should continue upon 
the theme, and it should arrive at a con- 
crete goal. 

To scout the ability to get men to study 
the Bible daily reveals not only a lack of 

125 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

heroic enterprise but also a blindness to the 
facts. Among the thirty thousand college 
men of the United States and Canada who 
continued in voluntary Bible classes last col- 
lege season, 8,997 students in 332 institu- 
tions were reported to be following daily 
Bible-study habits. It is needless to remark 
that these men compose the vital body of the 
college Bible movement. Among those agen- 
cies which have most successfully assisted in 
bringing about regular habits of Bible study 
there must be included the ever-increasing 
number of books which divide their weekly 
studies into seven distinct portions. Every 
possible help to the formation of a habit of 
regular retirement in the quiet places of the 
soul is peculiarly worth while to-day. 

So shall I keep 

Forever in my heart one silent space: 

A little sacred spot of loneliness, 

Where to set up the memory of Thy cross: 

A little quiet garden, where no man 

May pass or rest, forever, sacred still 

To visions of Thy sorrow and Thy love. 



136 







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COURSES AND LITERATURE 

IV — Bible Studies Suggestive not 
Exhaustive 

Bible courses, like some Bible teachers, 
narrate not wisely but too much. The secret 
of the effective Bible outline lies in its in- 
ference, incentive, and arousal of fresh 
ideas— a new viewpoint through thought-pro- 
voking questions. It should furnish an in- 
timation, a glimpse, a suggestion that it only 
half satisJBes. Interrogation, not statement, 
is the rule for the stirring of minds. 

Eobertson NicoU, in The British Weekly, 
remarks: ^^The teacher who first calls the 
mind from its slumber and sets it to work 
and to love work, he is the true teacher.'' A 
Bible course or a Bible book should set men 
to work. To do this a book must be inter- 
esting — to interest is to help. Our Bible lit- 
erature should lift life out of the dead level 
of perfunctoriness and platitude. It may do 
this by the attractive presentation of Bible 
principles, or, as Matthew Arnold would say, 
by ** turning a stream of fresh thought upon 
our stock notions and habits.'' 

127 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

V — Bible Reference-books 
Bible interest is often aroused by reading 
a great book written upon the Bible. Teach- 
ers may well have on the table about which 
their classes meet a few epoch-making trea- 
tises upon the nature of the Bible, the life 
and teachings of Jesus, intellectual and re- 
ligious questions, books aimed at devotional 
Bible study, and one or two pieces of litera- 
ture relating to Bible teaching and Bible 
organization. The following books are types 
of such literature. 

Bible Study the Great Way Into Life 's Values. King. 

Sixty Years with the Bible. Clarke. 

Theology of the New Testament, Stevens. 

Introduction to the New Testament. Dods. 

Book of the Twelve Prophets. George Adam Smith. 

(2 vols.) 
Leaves for Quiet Hours. Matheson. 
The Apostle Paul. Sabatier. 
Studies in the Life of Christ. Fairbairn. 
What is Christianity ? Adolph Harnaek. 
The Making of a Teacher. Brumbaugh. 

A well-chosen Bible reference library is 
almost indispensable if excellence in Bible 

128 



COUESES AND LITERATURE 

study is meditated. One successful Bible 
teacher told me that he read two books upon 
the Bible each week to freshen and to deepen 
his Bible enthusiasm. 

VI — Adequate Objective 
Biblical literature should be resultful. It 
should be good for some definite and practi- 
cal purpose. To be serviceable, Bible studies 
need clear objective. 

There are at least five tangible purposes 
set before modern Bible study. Bible litera- 
ture should be written and chosen in the light 
of these demands. 

1. Educatioit. If the Bible, as Burke 
said, is not a book but a literature; if it 
contains the richest English, the rarest 
thought and imagination; if it is ^^the fun- 
damental document of Christianity ''; Bib- 
lical helps should not fail in presenting the 
educational values of this book. Indeed, the 
prime essential of a Bible course lies in its 
contribution of Scriptural facts. While a 
Bible outline should not become lost in ge- 

1^9 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

ography and petty critical and textual mat- 
ters, it should, nevertheless, tell in a plain 
way what the Bible says. Bible students de- 
mand informational values. They wish to 
know, as a student exprest it, what it is all 
about. The young man who told his teacher 
recently that he had always thought that 
Sodom was the wife of Gomorrah, needed 
information more than he needed metaphys- 
ics or theology. Bible books for the sake of 
Bible facts, is a timely motto. 

2. Eeligious CoisrviCTioiT. Those people 
who select or prepare Bible studies should 
not forget that the Bible is the place of 
meeting between the soul and God. The 
Bible is peculiarly personal — it deals with 
me. Bible helps should develop a sense of 
spiritual reality. They should arouse the 
conscience by opening the eyes of the moral 
and religious understanding. Distinctions 
between right and wrong should be empha- 
sized. The student should be led to say: 
*^ Search me, God, and know my heart.'' 

Scores of students at Yale^^ last year, used 

130 



COUESES AND LITERATURE 

that new and invigorating set of devotional 
studies entitled ^^The Will of God,'' by Dr. 
Henry B. Wright. These studies are aimed 
at the production of religious conviction. 
The chief question presented is: What does 
God wish me to do with my life? 

3. Teaching Ministry. The first Bible 
group was a training-class. Jesus was a 
teacher of teachers. The church and Chris- 
tian organizations as a whole wait for effect- 
ive teaching leadership. The Bible will not 
become as ^^ universal as our race/^ until 
Christian leaders have keener conviction and 
a workable method relative to the subject of 
teacher-training. Books upon this subject 
should not only be brought to the Bible 
class, but time should be faithfully allotted 
for the discussion of the opportunity and the 
method of Bible leadership. Large organized 
classes for laymen seldom train Bible-teach- 
ers. Bible lectures and sermons are not 
chiefly intended to make approved Bible 
leaders. Even those who teach small classes 
do not always have in mind the discovery 

131 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

and the training of future teachers. The fol- 
lowing literature used in a discussional way 
in Bible classes, and also in book reviews 
before the class, have helped in this teaching 
objective : 

The Field of Ethics. Palmer. 

The Teaching of Bible Classes. See. 

Talks to Teachers. James. 

The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory. 

How to Make the Bible Real. King. 

The Training of Bible Teachers. 

The Prophets as Teachers. Kent. 

4. Arousal of Social Eesponsibility. Bib- 
lical literature should add a new and wide 
sense of social and national obligation. The 
demand upon the Bible is not merely indi- 
vidualistic. Biblical principles are to be ap- 
plied to modern problems. They are for 
attachment to practical life. To study in 
Bible classes Jesus ^ teachings concerning the 
poor, the rich, or the unfortunate, and to 
fail to make actual application of these 
teachings in the life about us is religious 
mockery. I found last year, in Asia, that 
the Orientals accepted most eagerly that 

13@ 



COURSES AND LITERATURE 

Bible literature which touched directly and 
progressively their social and political con- 
science. 

A new series of Bible studies now in prepa- 
ration by four specialists in Bible study is 
directed immediately to the message of the 
Bible to modern life. The studies by Kent 
and Smith, ^^The Work and Teachings of the 
Earlier Prophets/' are meeting with wide 
popularity, due largely to the social messages 
of the Minor Prophets to our own times. 
Men in the church and out of the church are 
also reading with interest and enthusiasm 
Professor Eauschenbusch's masterly book on 
^^Christianity and the Social Crisis.'' There 
is indeed a real international patriotism 
in the modern spirit of Bible study — a patri- 
otism which will not be fully understood, 
spoken, or enacted, until the Bible truly be- 
comes the Book of the Nations — until they 
** gather from the west and the east by the 
word of the holy One, rejoicing in the re- 
membrance of God.'' James Russell Lowell 
spoke with a prophetic insight: 

133 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

Slowly the Bible of the race is writ, 

And not on paper leaves nor leaves of stone, 

Each age, each kindred adds a verse to it, 

Texts of despair, or hope, or joy, or moan; 

While sings the sea, while mists the mountains shroud, 

While thunder's surges burst on cliffs of cloud, 

Still at the prophets' feet the nations sit. 

5. MoDEEN Evangelism. The supreme 
value of Bible literature depends upon its 
power to transform character, to make men 
^^safe in God.'' The Bible is the word of 
our Father to His children whom He loves 
and for whom His Son died. 

Who has yet sounded the possibility of 
Bible literature; that is, literature which is 
filled with the central message of the Bible 
in bringing men to know Jesus Christ in our 
world to-day? The Bible courses, Bible 
helps, and Bible reference-books which deal 
seriously and profoundly with the divine life 
and teachings of Jesus Christ, compose the 
literature par excellence for our time. Prof. 
Henry Drummond, when asked his recom- 
mendation as to the three best books, re- 
plied: ^^ First, The Life of Christ; second, 

134 



COURSES AND LITERATURE 

The Life of Christ; third The Life of 
Christ.'^ 

^^The Character of Jesus/ ^ by Horace 
Bushnell; ^^ Studies in the Life of Jesus 
Christ/' by Edward Bosworth; ^^The Fact 
of Christ/' by Carnegie Simpson; ^^ Studies 
of the Man Christ Jesus/' by Robert Speer, 
with many books in like strain, are vital 
Bible-study books, for these lead men inevi- 
tably into the transforming presence of Him 
^^whom not having seen ye love." 

It is this life of Christ which, as Beecher 
said, is ^^ never finished." In Him and in 
books about Him, modern evangelism lives 
and moves and has its being. 

Then stand before that fact, that Life and Death, 
Stay there at gaze, till it dispart, dispread, 
As tho a star should open out, all sides. 
Grow the world on you, as it is my world. 

It is the day of Biblical literature. De- 
mands for it are nation-wide. Its future use 
will be extensive beyond present comprehen- 
sion; and its profit will be according to its 
representation of God in Jesus Christ. 

135 



Chapter VIII 
THE BIBLE AS A MEANS TO SEEVICE 



13T 



From an address of Lincoln before the Bible Society 
at Springfield: *^It seems to me that nothing short of 
infinite wisdom could by any possibility have devised and 
given to man this excellent and perfect moral code. It is 
suited to men in all the conditions of life, and includes 
all the duties they owe to their Creator, to themselves, 
and to their fellow man.'' 

Most religions are meant to be straight lines connecting 
two points — God and man. But Christianity has three 
points — God, man, and his brother — with two lines to make 
a right angle. 

— ^Maltbie D. Babcock 

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, 
prest down, shaken together, running over, shall they 
give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete 
it shall be measured to you again. 

—■Luke 6:38 

On one of the battle-fields of South Africa a young 
chaplain found a Highlander sorely wounded and with life 
ebbing quickly away. He asked him to allow him to pray, 
but the soldier said gruflBly, *'No, I don't want prayers. 
I want water." The chaplain secured, with great difS- 
culty, some water, and then asked the refreshed man if 
he might read a Psalm. ^*No," said the soldier again. 
**I am too cold to listen to a Psalm." The chaplain 
instantly stript off his coat and wrapt it tenderly round 
the wounded soldier. And then, touched by the chaplain 's 
sympathy, the man turned and said, ' ^ Chaplain, if religion 
makes men like you, let's have that Psalm." 

The man comes out in his work; the character is re- 
vealed by conduct. 

— Hugh Black 

Cross, that liftest up my head, 

1 dare not ask to fly from thee; 
I lay in dust life's glory dead. 

And from the ground there blossoms red 
Life that shall endless be. 

— George Matheson 



138 



Chaptee VIII 
THE BIBLE AS A MEANS TO SEEVICE 

I — Modern Tendencies 

John Wesley said: ^^The Bible knows 
nothing of a solitary religion/' Yet for 
generations the churcli has restricted the 
Bible message to the individual. It is true 
that Luther cut the chains that bound the 
Bible to the church altars, but neither he 
nor his immediate successors discovered the 
social gospel of the Christian Scriptures. 
Indeed, a study of certain periods of Chris- 
tianity might arouse wonder as to whether 
the Bible really contains a social message. 
The perusal of Jeremy Taylor's ^^Holy Liv- 
ing,'' or ^'The Confessions of St. Augus- 
tine," tend to make one quite forget that the 
Bible presents any word save to the lonely 
individual, searching his own personal heart 
and busy with his own personal prayers. 

Fifty years ago, even, jthe hymns of the 

139 



THE BIBLE AND MOBERK LIEE 

church were almost entirely hymns directed 
to the individual conscience and heart. 

*^My faith looks up to thee/^ 



''Holy Ghost! with light divine, 
Shine upon this heart of mine''; 

hymns surpassingly beautiful, but self-cen- 
tered and introspective, expressing only the 
half-truth of religion. The prophets, for our 
fathers, touched no note of social or moral 
reform. They did not believe the Bible for 
its works' sake. Jesus was Savior, indeed, 
but to them he was hardly a great physician, 
a healer of the nations, the founder of a 
gospel of labor, the lover and uplifter of the 
poor, a humanitarian par excellence going 
about doing good. 

To-day, however, we are in the midst of 
a new Bible emphasis. In these times of 
insistent demand for a visualized religion, 
the Bible lies at the heart of modern reform, 
both for the recasting of theology and for 
the reconstruction of society. We are per- 

140 



BIBLE AS MEANS TO SERVICE 

ceiving that the genius of the Bible is the 
life of the Spirit in its reaction upon the 
world. ' ' Character, ' ^ says Professor Edward 
L Bosworth, ^4s growing good-will express- 
ing itself in increasingly efficient action." 
The Bible movements of to-day are placing 
emphasis upon this active good-will, this 
neighbor part of the one great command- 
ment. The hymns which we delight to sing 
are not simply those dealing with the satisfied 
personal sense of being safe in God, nor 
merely a ^^forgetfulness of evils and a truce 
from cares," as Hesiod sang; rather we 
sing— 

^'The Son of God goes forth to war, 

A kingly crown to gain; 
His blood-red banner streams afar: 
Who follows in His train?" 

or Dr. Gladden's matchless hymn of work: 

"0 Master, let me walk with Thee 
In lowly paths of service free. ' ' 

Professor Peabody, of Harvard, has said 
that the Bible has emerged from the realm 

141 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

of individual ethics into the field of social 
and organic ethics. ^^It is the age of the 
social question, ^^ he declares, *^The mind of 
the age has been led from a Ptolemaic con- 
ception of life, where the single soul was the 
center of the universe, to a Copernican doc- 
trine of life, where the single soul is set like 
a planet in a larger universe, and finds its 
orbit, with multitudes of other souls, round 
a common center. '^ 

This tendency to connect the Bible with 
serviceableness is indefinitely expanding Bi- 
ble possibilities. Many a Bible class has be- 
come static and anemic because it has lacked 
connection with the great tide of the world's 
need. Some Bible classes seem to have been 
characterized by action in two directions 
only : they have started and they have stopt. 
They remind one of the old negro lady who, 
when asked: ^^ Where are you going. Sister 
Susie r' replied: ^^Lasee, I'se done been 
where I'se gwine.'' 

The incentive of that *^ vital altruism, '^ 
which runs like a golden thread throughout 

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BIBLE AS MEANS TO SERVICE 

the Bible, is now not simply helping to usher 
men out of the parish into the world; it is 
also taking them out of the realm of theologi- 
cal dialect and formal integrity into the 
larger room of natural religious expression 
and serviceable reality. 

In other words, the Bible is at present 
assisting in the unification of the two great 
branches of the religious life: piety and 
service, faith and works, goodness and use- 
fulness. We are taking our Bibles into life 
to say: 

'^One lesson, nature, let me learn of thee, 
One lesson which in every wind is blown, 
One lesson of two duties kept in one, 
Of toil, unsevered from tranquillity. ' ^ 

And this prayer is simply the Gospel of 
Jesus: ^^If ye know my commandments 
happy are ye if ye do them.'' 

I saw the Bible in the hands of Indian 
Christians in the morning, and in the eve- 
ning I found them lifting their unfortunate 
brothers out of the depths of ignorance, 

143 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

disease, and poverty through the social 
amelioration of night schools and hospitals 
and clubs for the poor. 

In connection with the Young Men's 
Christian Associations in the city of Shang- 
hai, the eight hundred Chinese men who 
studied the Bible^ last year, went forth from 
their Bible classes to lead in that marvelous 
crusade in which a fund of 65,000 taels was 
secured to buy and equip land for a building 
in which to teach religion to the boys of 
Shanghai, and for an athletic field where 
these youth could learn hygienic righteous- 
ness. 

At Princeton University, last student year, 
1909-10, one hundred men of the 524 men 
enrolled in voluntary Bible classes, under 
the spell of the stirring ideals of Jesus as 
discust in their small groups, went out ac- 
tually to engage in the following practical 
service : 

Teaching educational classes in university and settle- 
ment houses; relief work in connection with the Salva- 
tion Army J leading Bible classes in the Young Men's 

144 



BIBLE AS MEANS TO SERVICE 

Christian Associations; visiting the sick; conducting 
Sunday-schools and boys' clubs in the country; arrang- 
ing church lectures in the rural districts. 

As Christian workers, whether within or 
without the church, we may with profit 
examine closely our Bible-study motives. 
What is the object of our teaching? Is this 
Book, which sprung out of life, returning to 
life where its message belongs? Are we 
making it a vital book, or simply an aca- 
demic or metaphysical book in our Bible de- 
partment? Does it belong with our deeds or 
with our words? The exactions of modern 
life are imperative. Are our Bible classes 
keeping pace with the complex moral and 
social issues of the world-spirit? By what 
means are we to redeem society if not 
through the spiritual motive-power of the 
gospel of the New Testament? Jesus repeat- 
edly drew attention to the serviceable use of 
the Bible: ^^ Every one therefore that hear- 
eth these words of mine, and doeth them, 
shall be likened unto a wise man, who built 
his house upon the rock.^' 

145 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

I would like to consider concretely several 
ways in which the Bible may become prac- 
tically useful through the church to our 
generation. 

II — Bible Study and Missions 
The practical study of the Bible should be 
closely related to missionary endeavor. The 
modern home and foreign missionary under- 
takings suffer to-day quite as much from the 
lack of a deep and steadily growing spiritual 
experience on the part of their propagandists 
as from scant material resources. The Bible 
is the guide-book of missions and of mis- 
sionaries. Bible study is the chief founda- 
tion of missionary incentive; it vitalizes and 
deepens the current of missionary life. 

A young and well-educated leader, who 
has been the means of fairly reconstructing 
the religious thought of an important sec- 
tion of the Par East; told me that he secured 
his first impulse toward his work in a small 
Bible group in a State institution in the Mid- 
dle West. The 11,939 men students who 

146 



BIBLE AS MEANS TO SERVICE 

were studying missions last year in the col- 
leges of North America, in connection with 
the Student Volunteer Movement, were al- 
most universally enrolled in the Bible classes 
of these institutions. We find that practi- 
cally every effective student volunteer in 
recent years, has made personal Bible study 
and Bible-study promotion one of the first 
objects of his career abroad. 

The men who are called home from work 
in other lands are not always failures 
in executive and administrative positions. 
Quite as often they have become incompe- 
tent through the neglect of personal habits 
of Bible study and prayer, for the sake of 
other phases of business which seemed to 
them more important. The omission of such 
exercise undercuts one's power at the very 
point of its greatest strength, namely, in the 
force of example. In one of the cities of 
India an English missionary leader with a 
growing spiritual experience has an unusual 
hold upon men of all classes. Some one 
asked in one of his Bible classes how it was 

147 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

thought that Jesus would come into the room 
if he were to visit their city. A Hindu stu- 
dent replied: ^*I think he would come in just 
as Larsen comes into our class.'' The light 
on the face of a Bible student in the East is 
more conclusive than argument, 

III — The Bible and Modern Problems 
Moreover, the direct application of Bible 
teachings to present-day questions is afford- 
ing a new place to Scripture. This prac- 
tical tendency has appealed to college men 
who last year purchased and used thousands 
of copies of books relating to the social sig- 
nificance of New Testament teachings. These 
students eagerly discust in boarding clubs, 
Greek-letter fraternities, and in their private 
rooms, Jesus' teaching to men concerning 
the relation of Christianity to such subjects 
as money, municipal evils, conditions of the 
poor, the laboring man, and the social and 
political tendencies in the nation. 

We discover in various parts of the coun- 
try, in clubs and associations both religious 

148 







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BIBLE AS MEANS TO SERVICE 

and secular, that men who never attend 
church or prayer-meeting will discuss vigor- 
ously the truth of the Bible as related 
to the labor problem. But is not the labor 
problem a religious problem? Was not 
Jesus interested in it? Did he not spend a 
great part of his earthly ministry in dealing 
with the conditions of the time in which he 
lived? And is not a thorough study of so- 
cial conditions quite indispensable to the 
proper adjustment between religion and 
service? In a Middle Western State I found 
both members of faculty and students deeply 
interested in the Book of Proverbs. The able 
professor of the department of political 
economy stated that he considered the Book 
of Proverbs the best reference-book on eco- 
nomics in the world, as it contains the un- 
changing principles which hold, whether the 
tariff is revised up or down. 

Many people are interested in the temper- 
ance question. How many of us have 
studied this question in the light of Chris- 
tian revelation in the Old Testament, and 

149 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

then in the New Testament? I discovered a 
Bible class some time ago in which the mem- 
bers studied for a whole year Jesus' attitude 
to the will, having for a chief purpose the 
reaching of one of the members of this class 
who was addicted to the liquor habit. That 
man stopt drinking, not by signing a pledge, 
but by receiving gradually into his resist- 
ance faculties a new power of self-control. 
As he exprest it, the Bible gave him a new 
motive — a fresh and overmastering desire. 

In his ^* Following the Equator,'' Mark 
Twain, in speaking of people limiting their 
habits, says: 

''When I was a youth I used to take all kinds of 
pledges, and do my best to keep them; but I never 
could, because I didn't strike at the root of the habit — 
the desire; I generally broke down within the month. 
Once I tried limiting a habit. That worked tolerably 
well for a while. I pledged myself to smoke but one 
cigar a day. I kept the cigar waiting until bedtime, 
then I had a luxurious time with it. But desire perse- 
cuted me every day and all day long; so, within the 
week I found myself hunting for larger cigars than I 
had been used to smoke ; then larger ones still, and still 

150 



BIBLE AS MEANS TO SERVICE 

larger ones. Within the fortnight I was getting cigars 
made for me — on a yet larger pattern. They still grew 
and grew in size. Within the month my cigar had 
grown to such proportions that I could have used it as 
a crutch." 

Modern Bible study defends its claims 
upon thinking men because of the fact that 
it reaches the inner desires of men as well 
as the external results of their desires in 
life problems. ^^ Whatever success I have 
obtained in the business world,'' said a 
prominent and successful business man 
recently, ^4s largely due to the character 
and ethical inspiration of that greatest of 
all Christian philosophers, St. Paul.'' 

IV — Bible Study and Youth in the Sunday- 
school 

Bible stiftdy is, furthermore, one of the 
chief means through which the young men 
and young women of our churches and Sun- 
day-schools can be led forth into definite 
service. 

I listened recently to a leader of Sunday- 

151 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

school work who uttered the following sig- 
nificant statement : Twenty-eight million 
people in the Sunday-school army; if these 
marched four abreast, eight hours a day and 
six days a week, a spectator must needs 
stand on the street six years and five months 
to see them all pass by. 

This is truly an impressive and highly 
gratifying piece of information, but just 
what does it mean in terms of utility? We 
can not parade the record of great enrol- 
ments as in themselves certificates of merit. 
We must demand insistently: What shall be 
the social result from this vast undertaking? 
What is the visible and tangible service to 
our time, even beyond the informational, the 
devotional, and the evangelistic influence? 
Indeed, we must press on to ask what should 
be the national effect of work described by 
such vast statistics. 

To attach the Bible study of Christendom 
to heroic enterprise is indeed our modern 
opportunity and our modern duty. Our 
Bible classes need something to do. Mem- 

15^ 



BIBLE AS MEANS TO SERVICE 

bers in our Sunday-scliools must do some- 
thing more than attend class. The logic of 
the Scripture must be found compatible 
with the logic of life. The Sunday-school 
is the fulcrum of the social life of a whole 
community; at least it might be. Every 
home is a laboratory. Every need of the 
town or city is a challenge. The Bible-school 
should become the recruiting-place for leader- 
ship of all our vast philanthropic and social 
service. These are no days for persons who 
are satisfied to remain supinely participant 
and dependent, just theorizing about religion. 
Inspiration leads to deeds, else Bible-schools 
fade into fictitious and unsubstantial mock- 
eries. The stirring messages of the world 
come from those who serve, from those 
whose light is not reflected or refracted, 
from those who are testing their Bibles in 
the great school of experience. 

What can the church and Sunday-school 
do? Some concrete answers to this question 
are presented in the constructive social work 
of the Laity League for Social Service in 

153 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

New York City. The following practical 
services which are now being rendered in 
New York by this League may well engage 
the attention of church and Sunday-school 
workers everywhere. 

The Flathush Avenue Congregational Church , Brook- 
lyn, has decided to do neighborhood work, and has chosen 
a volunteer director of Civic Work. 

The social, philanthropic and religious workers of the 
lower East Side formed a Local Needs Association more 
than a year ago, and are taking a Survey of vital facts. 
They are interested in playgrounds, naturalization, tuber- 
culosis and neighborhood amusements. 

The Laymen^s Christian Federation^ on the West Side, 
above Fifty-ninth Street, sent a large number of boys 
away for two weeks each last summer. They have done 
good work in watching the moral situation, and are 
attacking the problem of turning the energies of the 
boys on the street into harmless channels. 

The various interests, social, philanthropic, moral and 
religious, above Fourteenth Street, on the East Side, 
have formed a neighborhood organization for the better- 
ment of that district. 

In October there was formed a neighborhood organiza- 
tion at Hartley House, 409 West Forty-eighth Street, to 
include those interested in the social and moral improve- 
ment of the people in the section of the city between 
Eighth Avenue, Forty-second Street, North River and 
Fifty-ninth Street. 

154 



BIBLE AS MEANS TO SERVICE 

The men of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Bible Class are 
being assigned to various lines of civic and social work in 
which they are most interested. 

The Bible class at the Washington Heights Baptist 
Church has been influential in arousing the men in that 
section to such questions as parks, transportation, the 
play of the children and the character of amusements at 
Fort George. 

The Central Presbyterian Men's Club has been active 
this fall in the work of the Big Brothers ' Movement. 

A remarkable series of meetings for men and women 
at the Mount Morris Baptist Church has been arranged 
by Dr. J. Gardner Smith and others. Strong speakers 
discuss social and religious questions. 

The Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Brooklyn has 
lately taken a house in which will be accommodated 
young college and business men. 

The Spring Street Presbyterian Church is cooperating 
with Earl Hall, Columbia University, by putting to work 
with boys and men the volunteers who are sent by that 
institution. 

The Brotherhood of the Brick Presbyterian Church 
has been interested in various civic matters, such as Sun- 
day theaters, race-track questions, and questions of 
municipal art. A number of the men have been working 
in the affiliated churches on the East and West Sides. 
They have also cooperated with the Charity Organization 
Society and committees of the City Club. 

I would refer the reader to the pamphlets 

155 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

of the Laity League, from which the above 
facts have been taken, and also to the pam- 
phlet by Miss Byington, entitled ^^What So- 
cial Workers Should Know About Their Own 
Communities,'' which will be stimulating to 
all those who are interested in associating 
the church with practical activities. 

Neither is it in the city alone that the 
church may through Bible classes become 
practically interested in social betterment. 
New inspiration and new plans are coming 
into being for associating the rural church 
and the rural Sunday-schools with local needs 
and conditions. Bible workers can organize 
on the farm an athletic club for boys who can 
not be lured into the church and who are in 
greater danger from overthrow by evil habits 
and evil associates than are our city boys. 
In the State of Michigan it was recently re- 
ported that 60 per cent, of the children of 
primary-school age are in the rural commu- 
nities. Are our Bible students of our towns 
and cities at all interested in these problems ? 

A class of young men recently visited a 

156 



BIBLE AS MEANS TO SERVICE 

country district. They discovered the con- 
ditions of the youth of that section. They 
started a Sunday-school in a schoolhouse, 
then organized a debating society for the 
young men, and an industrial school, on a 
small scale, for young women. For four 
years this Bible class has been furnishing 
both inspiration and practical enlightenment 
to that entire community. Many have been 
added to the church; seven young men have 
been led to prepare for college; several 
members of the Bible class have become ex- 
perts upon rural subjects ; one man has writ- 
ten a booklet upon ^^The Ministry of the 
Bible to the Country Districts.'' That Bible 
class was serviceable. The sessions of the 
class were always about something. It is 
needless to remark that the attendance was 
never a problem. These young men had 
verified their Bible principles in the house 
of life. Their religion did not depend for 
its sustenance upon class discussions of 
metaphysics and the theory of sociology, 
neither did these men try to live upon the 

157 



THE BIBLE AND MODERN LIFE 

shewbread of early memory. Their re- 
ligious life was fed rather by fresh, vital 
experience, by actual contact with conditions, 
and this is the food which is ^^meat indeed.'^ 
One of the members of the group exprest 
the value of his study by saying: '^We find 
that Jesus' principles work/' 

This is the social gospel of the Bible. And 
it is a gospel as applicable to the life of to- 
day as it was applicable seven or eight cen- 
turies before Christ, when Micah exprest it: 

*' Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow 
myself before the high God? ... He hath showed 
thee, man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah re- 
quire of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, 
and to walk humbly with thy God?'' 

However often we may change our minds 
regarding theology, we shall never sur- 
render our belief in the serviceable applica- 
tion of the principles of the Bible to every- 
day life. 



158 



APPENDIX 



IM 



APPENDIX 

For the purpose of concrete suggestion as 
to programs of Bible-class sessions, consti- 
tutions and conference ideas, and bibliog- 
raphy, I append certain literature in use by- 
some of the most effective organized Bible 
work for men. 

I— Bible Institute 

PBOGBAM AT VANDEBBILT UNIVEBSITY, 
NASHVILLE, TENN. 
Friday Evening 
7:30 — ^Rally Meeting for the Visiting Delegates and for 
the College Men and Women of Tennessee 
Institutions. 
Address. 

Saturday Morning 
9 :00 — Devotional Service. 
9 :30 — Sectional Conferences. 

(A) For the University Men. 
Theme — ^Forces Making for Effective Bible Study. 

1. Systematic and Continuous Enrolment. 

2. A Vitalized Leader. 

161 



APPENDIX 

3. The Normal Group. 
(B) For the Preparatory School Men. 
Theme — ^Leadership. 

1. Securing and Training Leaders. 

2. High Ideals of a Leader. 

3. How to Improve the Class-hour. 
lliOO^^Joint Conference. 

Privileges and Opportunities of a Group Leader. 
11:30— Address. 

Saturday Afternoon 

2 :30 — Session for Fraternity Men. 

1. The Significance to the Fraternity of Having a 

Bible Study Group in the Chapter House. 

2. Jesus as a Fraternity Man. 

3. College Fraternity Bible Study Movements. 

Saturday Evening 

7 :30 — Sectional Conferences. 

(A) Faculty Session. 

1. Bible Study, a Constructive Force in College 

Life. 

2. Faculty Cooperation, a Factor in the Growth 

of Bible Study. 

(B) Preparatory School Session. 

1. A Bible Study Policy. 

2. Enrolling the Men. 

3. Creating and Maintaining Interest. 

162 



APPENDIX 

Sunday Morning 
9:30 — Session for Delegates. 

Theme — Bible Study Objectives. 

1. Evangelism. 

2. Daily Devotional Study, 
11 :00 — University Church Service. 

(For the Delegates, and the Students and Facul- 
ties of the Colleges and Universities of Nash- 
ville.) 
Address — Student Life and Bible Study in India. 

Sunday Evening 

7:30 — Closing Meeting of the Institute. 
Illustrated Lecture : 

' ' Bible Study the World Around. ' ' 

II — Sunday Program of an Organized Bible 
Class in New York City 
Name of Organization 
Place of Meeting 

Time of Meeting (10 a.m. Sunday) 
Date. 
• • Chairman Advisory Committee 

President 

Leader. 

163 



APPENDIX 

PROGRAM 

Class Singing — Led by Orchestra and Precentor. 
Selection by Quartet (Composed of members of the 

League.) 
Hymn: '*0 Master Let Me Walk with Thee/' 
Devotional Exercises — ^Led by Class President. 
Four Minute Paper: '^Christ's Mission as Conceived 

by Himself and His Followers." 
Solo. 

Offering — Selection by Quartet. 
Question Box (Questions presented week in advance 

by members and answered by teacher or pastor.) 
Address by Class Leader — Subject: 

* ' Christian Friendliness ' ' — Bosworth 's 
Studies, John 1 : 35-51. 
Hymn: ^^Love Divine all Love Excelling.'' 
Lord's Prayer. 

Fifteen Minutes' informal reception In Parish House. 

The daily lessons for this week are Study XXV, 
Bosworth 's Studies, Pages 210-218, Third Chapter of 
John. 

Six o'clock, Thursday evening, supper in the Parish 
House for members and friends, followed by half-hour 
discussion. 

The most important League meeting of the year will 

be held Thursday evening. May , at the Hotel 

In connection with a dinner there will oc- 
cur the Annual Business Meeting. The election of 
officers for the ensuing year, and the adoption of a 

164 



APPENDIX 

revised constitution are among the important considera- 
tions. A strong list of after-dinner speakers, including 

and No member of the 

League can afford to miss this meeting. Leave your 

name at close of meeting with , Chairman 

of Reception Committee. 

Ill — Training Leadership for a State-ivide 

Campaign. State Bible Conference Em- 

phasizing Service held at Albion, 

Michigan 

Friday Afternoon 

1:30 — Address: ^'Trained Bible Study Leadership the 

Key to Every Religious Problem.'' 
2:00 — ^Discussion: '^The Student Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association as a Training School for Bible 
Study Leadership.^' 
(Presentations limited to 3 minutes) 
a. The regular Association Bible Class. 
h. The group leaders' training class. 

c. Practise in leading classes. 

1. In the Student Association. 

2. In the City Association. 

3. In the County Association. 

4. In the Local High School. 

5. In Rural Sunday Schools. 

d. Study of local field. 

e. An Organized Bible Study Department. 

165 



APPEHDIX 

4:00 — Discussion: ^^The College as a Training School 
for Bible Study Leadership." 
a. Bible Study in the Curriculum. 
h, Bible Teacher Training Courses in the Curriculum. 

Friday Evening 
7 :30 — ^Mass Meeting. 
Address: ^^ Bible Study — A World-wide Enterprise.'^ 

Saturday Forenoon 

8 :00— Address : Topic, ^' Ideal — Every Christian Col- 
lege Man a Competent Bible Study Leader for 
the Community in Which He Locates. ' ' 

8:30— Discussion: '^The Field— Its Call for Trained 
Bible Study Leadership. ' ' 

a. The Rural Community. 

b. The Public School. 

c. The Average City. 

d. The Large City. 

10:30 — Address: '^Cooperation of All Agencies for a 
State-wide Program Under Trained Leader- 
ship. ' ' 

IV — Bible-study Conference, Cornell 
University 

Friday Evening 
7:30 P.M. — ^Intercollegiate Sociable. 

Saturday Morning 
9 :00 A.M. — Devotional Ex!ercises. 

166 



APPENDIX 

9:30-10:00— ^' Why of Bible Study/' 
10:00-11:30— ''Essentials for Effective Bible Study.'' 

1. Enrolment — 
(Systematic organization.) 
(Continuous follow-up work.) 

2. A Trained Leadership. 

(a) Who — (Key to effective work.) 

(6) Methods for Training (Fraternity leader). 

1. Spring Class. 

2. Conferences. 

3. Normal Group. 

11:30 A.M. — ''Privileges and Opportunities of a Group 
Leader.'' 

Saturday Afternoon 

2:00 P.M. — ^Faculty session ( member of faculty 

presiding.) 

1. "Bible Study a Constructive Force in College 

Life." 

2. "Faculty Cooperation a Factor in the Growth of 

Bible Study." 

Saturday Evening 

7:30 P.M.— Session for Fraternity Men. 

1. "Significance to Fraternity of Having a Bible 

Study Group in the Chapter House." 
Endorsements by several colleges. 

2. "College Fraternity Bible Study Movement." 

1«7 



APPENDIX 

Sunday Morning 

9:30 A.M. — Session for Students. 

Bible Study Objectives. 

Sunday Evening 
7:30 P.M. — Address. 

V — Bible-study Policy for Men of Entire 
Community 

The following policy was adopted in a con- 
ference attended by representatives of the 
County Sunday-school Association, Ministe- 
rial Association, Federated Church Brother- 
hoods, Sunday-school Superintendents' As- 
ciation, and the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation at Dayton, Ohio. 

1, The Objective shall he: 

1. To stimulate existing classes. 

2. To organize at least one men's class in every Bible 

School and as many more as the proper classifi- 
cation of the constituency of the church, the sup- 
ply of competent teachers and leaders, and the 
accommodations will warrant. 

3. To conduct an extension work to reach men of all 

classes who do not attend regular Bible classes. 

4. To introduce Bible Study into the meetings of 

Brotherhoods and men's clubs. 

168 



APPENDIX 

5. To secure the attendance at summer training con- 
ferences of at least one leader from every church. 

II. The Methods shall he : 

1. To prepare and distribute a directory of men's 

Bible classes. 

2. To prepare a directory of forces. 

3. To secure a corps of capable men to assist in the 

organization and promotion of classes. 

4. To arrange a uniform adult Bible Class Rally Day 

in all the churches in October. 

5. To conduct a Bible Study Conference, which shall 

include a big dinner, during the week preceding 
the Rally. 

6. To invite the pastors to preach on Bible Study on 

the Sunday preceding Rally Day. 

7. To conduct a general publicity campaign leading up 

to the Conference and Rally Day. 

8. To consider carefully the question of Courses of 

Study for Men's Classes. 

9. To conduct a Training School for teachers and lead- 

ers of Men's Bible Classes. 

10. The following shall be the Course of Study in the 

Training School. 

(a) Methods — Under the direction of a committee. 
To consist of talks and conferences on methods 
and practise in conducting the class. 

169 



APPENDIX 

(&) Biblical Introduction. 

To be a combination of the important parts of 
Biblical Introduction, pedagogy and psychol- 
ogy, 
(c) Bible Exposition. 

To be selections illustrating the various methods 
of studying and teaching the different parts of 
the Bible. 

Ill, The Division of Responsibility shall he: 

1. That the Montgomery County Sunday School Asso- 

ciation shall be responsible for sections one and 
two of the Objectives, which shall be done in co- 
operation with the local Brotherhoods and the Bible 
Study Committee of Federated Church Brother- 
hoods and section three of the Methods. 

2. That the Federated Church Brotherhoods, through its 

Bible Study Committee, shall be responsible for 
sections four and five of the Objectives and that 
the Committee shall cooperate with the Montgom- 
ery County Sunday School Association in the work 
of section five. 

3. That the Sunday School Superintendent's Associa- 

tion shall be responsible for the discovery and en- 
rolment of men in the Training School. 

4. That the Young Men's Christian Association shall 

be responsible for section three of the Objectives 
and sections one, two and eight of the Methods, 
the work of section eight to be done by a repre- 
sentative committee. 

170 



APPENDIX 

5. That a Men's Bible Study Cabinet consisting of two 

representatives elected by each of the five organiza- 
tions represented in this Conference, shall be or- 
ganized and be responsible for initiative, coordina- 
tion and results in carrying out this Policy, and for 
sections four, five, six, seven, nine and ten of the 
Methods. 

6. That the expenses of the Men's Bible Study Cabinet 

shall be borne equally by the five organizations 
represented in this conference and that ten dollars 
($10) shall be paid to the treasurer of the Cabinet 
by each as soon as the Cabinet is organized. 

VI — Constitution and By-Laws of Large 
Organized Classes for Men 

CONSTITUTION OF AN ORGANIZED BIBLE 
CLASS IN LYNN, MASS. 

ARTICLE I 

NAME 

This class shall be called 



ARTICLE IL 

OBJECT 

Its object shall be to promote religious instruction, 
and to improve the spiritual, mental, social and phys- 
ical condition of young men. 

171 



APPENDIX 

ARTICLE III 

OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES 

Section 1 — The officers of the class shall be a Pres- 
ident, Vice-President, Recording Secretary, Correspond- 
ing Secretary, Treasurer, Teacher, Chorister, Organist, 
Assistant Organist, and Librarian, who shall be elected 
by ballot at the annual meeting. 

Sec. 2 — There shall also be the following committees, 
viz. : — Executive, Membership, Visiting, Devotional, So- 
cial, Entertainment, Athletic and Employment; and the 
chairman of each committee, except the Executive and 
Devotional, shall be elected by ballot at the annual 
meeting, and the several chairmen, ex!cepting the Ex- 
ecutive, shall have power to appoint the members of 
their respective committees. 

ARTICLE IV 

duties of officers and committees 
Section 1 — The President shall preside at the busi- 
ness meetings of the class. He shall appoint all com- 
mittees not herein provided for, and shall perform the 
usual duties pertaining to his office. He shall also be 
Chairman of the Devotional Committee. 

Sec. 2 — The Vice-President shall be chairman of the 
Executive Committee, and shall perform the duties of 
the President during his absence. 

Sec. 3 — The Recording Secretary shall keep a record 
of the members, of their attendance and of all the 
moneys received at the Sunday collections. He shall 

17^ 



APPENDIX 

also keep accurate minutes in a book provided for that 
purpose of all business meetings. 

Sec. 4 — The Corresponding Secretary shall attend to 
all newspaper notices and printing, and, with the aid 
of the various committees, to the mailing of all lit- 
erature. 

Sec. 5 — The Treasurer shall receive all moneys of the 
Class and pay out the same as directed by the Ex- 
ecutive Committee. 

Sec. 6 — The Teacher shall be the spiritual leader, and 
as such shall conduct the Bible study and minister to 
the highest moral and spiritual interests of the class. 

Sec. 7 — The Chorister shall have entire charge of the 
music of the class and shall, with the aid of the organ- 
ists, provide a musical program for each Sunday. 

Sec. 8 — The Organist and Assistant Organist shall be 
the regular accompanists in the musical work of the 
class, and shall otherwise cooperate with the chorister. 

Sec. 9 — The Librarian shall have the custody of all 
books and printed matter and shall see that the same 
are properly distributed. He shall also appoint such 
assistants as he may deem necessary. 

Sec. 10 — The Executive Committee shall consist of 
the elective officers of the class, and the chairmen of 
the various committees, seven of whom shall constitute 
a quorum. 

The duties of this committee shall be to vote upon all 
applications for membership; to consider all matters 

173 



APPENDIX 

pertaining to class interests before they are brought 
before the class, to audit all bills, and to supervise the 
general expenses of the class. 

Each member of this committee shall make, in wri- 
ting, at the quarterly meetings, a detailed report of his 
work. 

Sec. 11 — The duties of the Membership Committee 
shall be to maintain and increase the attendance on 
Sunday and at social meetings, of young men eligible 
to membership, and to submit to the Executive Com- 
mittee all properly endorsed applications. 

Sec. 12 — The duties of the Visiting Committee shall 
be to call upon the new members; to visit any mem- 
bers who may be ill or delinquent in attendance; and 
to seek to maintain and better the spiritual condition 
of the members of the class. 

Sec. 13 — The duties of the Devotional Committee 
shall be to conduct the opening exercises of the Sunday 
services, and to assist the Teacher in making the Sun- 
day sessions as attractive and helpful as possible. 

Sec. 14 — The duties of the Social Committee shall be 
to promote the social interests of the class; to provide 
suitable refreshments at the class gatherings, and to 
have general charge of socials, receptions and the an- 
nual banquet. 

Sec. 15 — The duties of the Entertainment Committee 
shall be to provide suitable entertainments of an in- 
tellectual, esthetic or social nature at the class gather- 
ings, and to procure speakers for the annual banquet. 

174 



APPENDIX 

Sec. 16 — The duties of the Athletic Committee shall 
be to attend to the athletic interests of the class. 

Sec. 17 — The duties of the Employment Committee 
shall be to establish and maintain an employment bu- 
reau; to keep a list of members desiring employment 
and positions to be filled; and to endeavor in every 
way to aid members in need of situations. 

ARTICLE V 

MEETINGS 

The annual meeting of the class shall be held on the 
first Thursday of April at 8 p.m. The other regular 
meetings of the class shall be held on the first Thurs- 
day of the months of July, October, and January, at 
8 P.M., or at such other times as the Executive Commit- 
tee shall decide. 

Special meetings of the class may be called at any 
time by the President, the Executive Committee, or on 
the written request of twenty members of the class, due 
notice of which meeting shall be given publicly at a 
Sunday session not more than two weeks previous to 
the time appointed for said meetings. 

At special meetings no business other than that spec- 
ified in the call shall be considered, e3:!cept by unani- 
mous consent. 

ARTICLE VI 

QUORUM 

Twenty-five members shall constitute a quorum for 
the transaction of business. 

175 



APPENDIX 

ARTICLE VII 

MEMBERSHIP 

Any young man of sixteen years or over, upon the 
recommendation of any member of the class and the 
approval of the Executive Committee, may become a 
member of the class by the signing of the constitution. 

ARTICLE VIII 

AMENDMENTS ' 

This Constitution and By-Laws may be altered by a 
vote of two-thirds of the members present at a regular 
or special business meeting of the class, previous notice, 
stating proposed amendment, having been given in wri- 
ting at least two weeks in advance. 

BY-LAWS 

The Executive Committee shall hold a meeting at 
least once a quarter, and oftener if the interest of the 
class demands. 

The funds of the class shall be raised by voluntary 
contributions, and no contributions shall be solicited at 
any of the social meetings. 

CONSTITUTION OF A BIBLE CLASS IN NEW 
YORK CITY 
ARTICLE I 

NAME 

The name of this organization shall be 

' 176 



APPENDIX 

ARTICLE II 

OBJECT 

The object of this organization shall be to promote 
Christian manhood. 

ARTICLE III 

MEMBERSHIP 

1. There shall be three classes of members, Active, 
Associate and Honorary. 

2. The Active membership shall be composed of men 
between the ages of 18 and 45 years. But no one shall 
cease to be an Active member because he has passed 
the age of 45; nor shall this age limit apply to the 
present Active members of the Class. 

3. The Associate membership shall be composed of 
men beyond the age of 45 who desire to attend the Sun- 
day morning sessions of the Class 

4. Active and Associate members shall be elected by 
the Committee on Admission. 

5. The Honorary membership shall be composed of 
those men who have addrest the Class or rendered it 
some other conspicuous service. Honorary members 
shall be elected by a majority of the members present 
at any regular meeting. 

6. Only Active members shall be eligible to vote and 
hold oflace. 

ARTICLE IV 

OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES 

1. The Oflcers of this Class shall be a President, a 

177 



APPENDIX 

Vice-President, two Recording Secretaries, a Corre- 
sponding Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Leader. 

2. There shall be the following Standing Commit- 
tees : 

Executive, Entertainment, 

Membership, Cooperation, 

Admission, Music, 

Attendance, Refreshment, 

Visiting, House. 

3. The Officers, (with the exception of the leader), 
and the Chairman of the Standing Committees, shall be 
elected by ballot at the annual meeting, and shall hold 
office for one year from the first day of May following. 
A plurality vote shall elect. 

4. The Leader shall be chosen by the Executive 
Committee at its first meeting in May and shall hold 
office for one year, or until his successor is chosen. 

5. Any office of the Class may be declared vacant, 
by a two-thirds vote of the Executive Committee at any 
regular or special meeting. 

6. Vacancies in office occurring during the year 
shall be filled by the Executive Committee, and Officers 
thus appointed shall hold office until the nex^ annual 
election of the Class. 

ARTICLE V 

DUTIES OF OFFICERS 

1. The President shall preside at the regular and 
special business meetings of the Class and shall per- 

178 



APPENDIX 

form the usual duties pertaining to such office. He 
shall also be the Chairman of the Executive Committee 
and the Chairman of the Committee on Admission, and 
a member of all Standing Committees, ex officio. 

2. The Vice-President shall perform the duties of 
the President in his absence. 

3. The First Recording Secretary shall keep the 
minutes of the business meetings of the Class and a 
record of all such matters as the Executive Committee 
may deem advisable. 

4. The Second Recording Secretary shall keep the 
roll of the Class, notify the Active and Associate mem- 
bers of their election, and notify the Visiting Commit- 
tee each week of the sick and absent Active members. 
He shall also send out to the Active members notices 
of<Jlass affairs as directed by the Ex^ecutive Committee, 
and shall perform such other duties as the Executive 
Committee shall direct. 

5. The Corresponding Secretary shall conduct the 
correspondence of the Class, notify Officers and Honor- 
ary members of election, prepare a report of the work 
of the Class every four months, and perform such other 
duties as the Executive Committee shall direct. 

6. The Treasurer shall receive all moneys belonging 
to the Class, and shall hold, deposit and pay out the 
same as directed by the Executive Committee. He shall 
make a full report of the receipts and disbursements of 
the Class every four months to the Executive Com- 
mittee. 

179 



APPENDIX 

ARTICLE VI 

DUTIES OP COMMITTEES 

1. (a) The Ex^ecutive Committee shall consist of the 
Officers of the Class, the Chairman of the other Stand- 
ing Committees, the Pastor of the Church, and the 
Leader of the Class. The President of the Class shall 
be Chairman of the Executive Committee, ex ofi&cio. 

(h) The Executive Committee shall be vested with 
the management of the Class, including the appoint- 
ment of all committees not otherwise provided for, the 
regulation of expenditures and the determination of the 
policy of the Class. 

(c) The Executive Committee shall hold regular 
monthly meetings and special meetings at the call of 
the Chairman. 

(d) One month before the annual meeting, the 
Executive Committee shall appoint a Nominating Com- 
mittee to nominate the Officers of the Class and chair- 
men of the Standing Committees for the ensuing year. 

2. The Membership Committee shall consist of from 
fifteen to twenty-five members. The duties of this 
Committee shall be to welcome strangers at the Sunday 
morning sessions of the Class, introduce them to the 
members of the Class, call upon them and cultivate 
their friendship, being responsible for the strangers for 
one to four weeks as may be required in order to make 
them feel at home and desirous of remaining in the 
Class, finally in their discretion recommending them for 
membership in the Class and the Club. The members 

180 



APPENDIX 

of this Committee shall secure from strangers such data 
as may be deemed desirable, filing the same with the 
Chairman of the Committee, who shall direct the work 
of the Committee. 

3. The Committee on Admission shall consist of the 
President, the Chairman of the Attendance Committee 
and the Chairman of the Membership Committee. The 
duty of this Committee shall be to pass upon and in 
their discretion elect to either Active or Associate 
membership those men whose names are presented to 
them as candidates. 

4. The Attendance Committee shall consist of five 
members, whose duty it shall be to act as Ushers at the 
Sunday morning sessions of the Class, greet strangers 
as they enter the Class, and secure their names and ad- 
dresses, which shall be turned over to the Chairman of 
the Membership Committee. 

5. The Visiting Committee shall consist of five mem- 
bers, whose duty it shall be to visit the sick and the 
absent members as they may be notified of such cases 
by the Second Recording Secretary. 

6. The Entertainment Committee shall consist of 
seven members, and shall have charge of all socials and 
entertainments of the Class. 

7. The Committee on Cooperation shall consist of 
five members. It shall be the duty of this Committee 
to keep in touch with the various activities of the 
Church and such other activities as may seem expedi- 
ent, with a view to supplying men from the Class as 
workers wherever they may be required. 

181 



APPENDIX 

8. The Music Committee shall consist of three mem- 
bers, whose duty it shall be to provide music and a 
Precentor for the Sunday morning meetings of the 
Class, and also to provide music for other meetings of 
the Class when requested. 

9. The Refreshment Committee shall consist of three 
members, and shall have charge of the refreshments 
served at any teas or other social meetings of the Class. 

10. The House Committee shall consist of five mem- 
bers. It shall have the care of the meeting room and 
of all Class property. 

11. The Nominating Committee shall consist of five 
members, including the Leader of the Class, and shall 
be appointed by the Executive Committee one month 
before the annual meeting. It shall be the duty of the 
Nominating Committee two weeks before the annual 
election to present to the Class a list of Candidates for 
the elective oflSces and chairmanships of the Class, sug- 
gesting two names for each position. Upon the request 
of twenty-five members of the Class the name of a 
third candidate for any office may be added. 

12. The Leader of the Class shall be a member of 
the Executive and Nominating Committees, ex officio. 

ARTICLE VII 

MEETINGS 

1. The annual meeting of the Class shall be held 
early in April. 

2. Other business meetings of the Class may be held 

18^ 



APPENDIX 

at such times and places as the Executive Committee 
shall decide. 

3. A special meeting of the Class may be called at 
any time by the President, three members of the Ex- 
ecutive Committee, or on the written request of twenty- 
five members of the Class, due notice of which shall be 
given publicly at a Sunday session not less than one 
week before said meeting. 

ARTICLE VIII 

QUORUMS 

1. Twenty-five Active members of the Class shall 
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. 

2. Five members of the Executive Committee shall 
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. 

ARTICLE IX 

AMENDMEITTS 

This Constitution may be altered by a vote of two- 
thirds of the Active members present at a regular or 
special business meeting of the Class, previous notice 
stating the proposed amendment having been given two 
weeks before the meeting. 

BY-LAWS OF A BIBLE CLASS IN ROCHESTER, 

NEW YORK 

Article I — ^Name 

This class shall be called the 

183 



APPENDIX 

Article II — Object 
Its object shall be to promote religious instruction, 
and to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and phys- 
ical condition of young men. 

Article III— Motto 
Tro Christo, 

Article IV — Officers and Committees 
Section 1. — The officers of this class shall consist of a 
President, Corresponding Secretary, 

Vice-president, Treasurer, 

Recording Secretary, Librarian, 
Assistant Librarian. 
Sec. 2 — The officers of this class shall be elected at 
the annual meeting. 

Sec. 3 — There shall be the following committees, viz. : 
Executive, Athletic, 

Visiting, Employment, 

Attendance, Devotional, 

Social, Music. 

Sec. 4 — The chairmen of each committee, except the 
Executive, shall be elected at the annual meeting. 

Sec. 5 — The elective officers of this class shall be 
elected by ballot, and a majority of the whole number 
of votes cast shall be necessary for a choice. 

Sec. 6 — The elective officers of this class shall be 
elected at the annual meeting and shall hold their re- 
spective offices for the term of one year next succeed- 
ing their election, or until such a time as their suc- 
cessors are elected. 

184 



APPENDIX 

Sec. 7 — ^Any ofl&ce of this class may be declared va- 
cant by a two-thirds vote of the members present at 
any regular or special meeting of the class. 

Article V — Duties of Officers and Committees 

Section 1 — The president shall preside at the reg- 
ular and special business meetings of the class. He 
shall appoint all committees not herein provided for, 
and shall also perform the usual duties pertaining to 
such an officer. 

Sec. 2 — The vice-president shall perform the duties 
of the president during his absence. 

Sec. 3 — The recording secretary shall keep a record 
of the members, of their attendance, and of all the 
moneys received at the Sunday collections. He shall 
also keep accurate minutes, in a book provided for that 
purpose, of all business transacted by the class, and the 
exiecutive committee. 

Sec. 4 — The corresponding secretary shall attend to 
the placing of notices in newspapers and periodicals, 
answer all correspondence, and attend to the printing 
and mailing of all notices of meetings of the class. 

Sec. 5 — The treasurer shall receive all moneys be- 
longing to the class; shall hold, deposit and pay out 
the same, as directed by the executive committee. He 
shall make a full report of the receipts and disburse- 
ments of the class at each annual meeting. 

Sec. 6 — The librarian shall have the care and cus- 
tody of all books and printed matter, and shall see 
that the same are properly distributed. 

Sec. 7 — ^The assistant librarian shall perform the 
185 



APPENDIX 

duties of the librarian during his absence, and shall 
assist him in performing his duties. 

Sec. 8 — The executive committee shall consist of the 
elective officers of the class, and the chairmen of the 
various standing committees. The executive committee 
shall consider all matters pertaining to class interests 
before being brought before the class; audit all bills 
and supervise the general expenses of the class; 
make such expenditures as shall be necessary for the 
welfare of the class; and shall have power to fill any 
vacancies occurring in office. 

Sec. 9 — The attendance committee shall consist of 
fifteen members. The duties of this committee shall be 
to maintain and increase the attendance of the members 
of the class at all of its sessions. 

Sec. 10 — The visiting committee shall consist of three 
members. The duties of this committee shall be to call 
upon the new members; to visit any members who may 
be ill or delinquent in attendance ; and to seek to main- 
tain and better the spiritual condition of the members 
of the class. 

Sec. 11 — The social committee shall consist of fifteen 
members. The duties of this committee shall be to 
promote the social interests of the class ; to have charge 
of all social gatherings, receptions, etc., also to provide 
suitable entertainment, etc. 

Sec. 12 — The employment committee shall consist of 
three members. The duties of this committee shall be 
to establish and maintain an employment bureau; to 
keep a list of members desiring employment, and po- 

186 



APPENDIX 

sitions to be filled; and shall endeavor in every way to 
aid members in need of situations. 

Sec. 13 — The devotional committee shall consist of 
five members. The duties of this committee shall be to 
conduct the opening exercises of the Sunday services, 
and to assist the teacher in making the Sunday services 
as attractive and helpful as possible. 

Sec. 14 — The music committee shall consist of three 
members. The duties of this committee shall be to fur- 
nish suitable music at all of the Sunday sessions of 
the class. 

Sec. 15 — The athletic committee shall consist of three 
members. The duties of this committee shall be to at- 
tend to the athletic interests of the class. 

Sec. 16 — The chairmen of the various committees, 
except the executive, shall have power to appoint the 
additional members of their respective committees. 

Sec. 17 — The teacher of this class shall be a member 
of all committees ex officio. 

Sec. 18 — At the annual meeting of the class, and 
oftener if required, the elected officers shall furnish the 
class with a complete report of the business transacted 
in their respective offices, and shall deliver to their 
successors in office all papers, books, records, moneys, 
and other properties belonging to the class within ten 
days after the expiration of their terms of office. 

Aeticle VI — Meetings 

Section' 1 — The annual meeting of this class shall be 
held on the last Thursday in the month of January. 

187 



APPENDIX 

Sec. 2 — The other regular business meetings of the 
class shall be held quarterly, or at such times and places 
as the executive committee shall decide. 

Sec. 3 — Special meetings of this class may be called 
at any time by the president, the executive committee, 
or on the written request of twenty members of the 
class; due notice of which meeting shall be given pub- 
licly at a Sunday session not more than two weeks 
previous to the time appointed for said meetings. 

Sec. 4 — At special meetings no business other than 
that specified in the call shall be considered, except by 
unanimous consent of those present at such meeting. 

Article VII — Quorums 

Section 1 — Twenty-five members of the class shall 
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. 

Sec. 2 — Five members of the executive committee 
shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of busi- 
ness. 

Article VIII — ^Membership 

Section 1 — ^Any male of the age of sixteen, or over, 
may become a member of the class by signing a mem- 
bership card. 

Sec. 2 — Any member of the class who has not been 
in attendance at any of the sessions of the class within 
a period of four months, may be dropt from the mem- 
bership of the class on vote of the attendance com- 
mittee. 

188 



APPENDIX 

Article IX — Contributions 
The funds of the class shall be raised by voluntary 
contributions; and no contributions shall be solicited 
at any social meetings. 

Article X' — Amendments 
These by-laws may be altered by a vote of two-thirds 
of the members present at a regular or special business 
meeting of the class, previous notice, stating proposed 
amendment, having been given in writing at least two 
weeks in advance. 



189 



APPENDIX 

BIBLE-STUDY COUESES AND REFEE- 
ENCE LITEEATUEE 

NEW BIBLE STUDIES 
The Message of the Bible to Modern Life 
Six series of studies, thirty lessons each, covering the 
entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, arranged for 
both weekly and daily study, with special application of 
the Bible to modern social, economic, political, and relig- 
ious problems. Authors collaborating : Professor Charles 
Foster Kent of Yale University, Dean Edward Increase 
Bosworth of Oberlin Theological Seminary, Professor 
Jeremiah W. Jenks of Cornell University, and Clayton 
Sedgwick Cooper of The International Committee of 
Young Men^s Christian Associations, New York City. 
The first thirty studies in the Old Testament beginning 
with Genesis, and entitled ^^The Making of a Nation,'^ 
and the first thirty studies in the New Testament upon 
^^ Jesus' Life and Teachings," will be ready about 
October 1st, 1911. 

OLD TESTAMENT 

Introduction and History 

Biblical Introduction. Bennet and Adeney (new edition 

announced). 
The Literature of the Old Testament. Driver. 
A Short Introduction to the Literature of the Bible. 

Moulton. 
Introduction to the Old Testament. McFadyen. 
Old Testament History. Wade. 
The Bible as English Literature. Gardiner. 

190 



APPENDIX 

Prophets 

Old Testament Prophecy. Davidson. 

Book of the Twelve Prophets. Smith (2 vols.) 

Prophets of Israel. Cornill. 

Messages of the Earlier Prophets. Sanders and Kent. 

The Minor Prophets. Eiselen. 

Doctrine of the Prophets. Kirkpatrick. 

Religion of Babylon and Assyria. Rogers 
(especially in its relations to Israel). 

The Great Teachers of Judaism and Christianity. Kent. 

Prophecy and the Prophets in Their Historical Rela- 
tions. Eiselen. 

The Minor Prophets. Farrar. (Men of the Bible Series.) 

Psalms and Wisdom Literature 

The Messages of the Psalmists. McFadyen. 

The Psalms in Human Life. Prothero. (Everyman^s 

Library.) 
The Epic of the Inner Life. Genung. 
The Hebrew Literature of Wisdom. Genung. 

NEW TESTAMENT 
Introductiont 

A Critical Introduction to the New Testament. Peake. 

Introduction to the New Testament. Dods. 

A Short Introduction to the Gospels. Burton. 

Introduction to New Testament. Bacon. 

The Study of the Gospels. Robinson. 

Introduction to the New Testament. Zahn. (3 vols.) 

191 



APPENDIX 

History of New Testament Times in Palestine. Math- 
ews. 

In the Time of Christ; Sketches of Jewish Social Life. 
Edersheim. 

Introduction to Literature of the New Testament. Mof- 
fatt. 

Theology of ihe New Testament. Stevens. 

LIFE OF CHRIST 

Life of Christ. Stalker. 

The Life and Times of Jesus. Edersheim. 

The Student Life of Jesus. Gilbert. 

Life of Christ. Farrar. 

The Life of Jesus. Holtzmann. 

The Man Christ Jesus. Speer. 

In the Days of His Flesh. Smith. 

Outlines of the Life of Christ. Sanday. 

The Ethics of Jesus. King. 

The Character of Jesus. Bushnell. 

The Kingdom of God. Bruce. 

Jesus and the Gospel. Denney. 

The Principles of Jesus. Speer. 

The Life of Christ. Dawson. 

The Life of the Master. Watson. 

Jesus Christ and the Christian Character. Peabody. 

Earliest Sources of the Life of Jesus. Burkett. 

The Jewish People in the Time of Christ. Schurer. 

(5 vols.) 
A History of the Jewish People. Maccabean and Roman 

Periods. Riggs. 

192 



APPENDIX 

The Life of Jesus of Nazareth. Rhees. 
Studies in the Life of Christ. Fairbairn. 
Why Four Gospels. Gregory. 



THE EARLY CHURCH 

Life of St. Paul. Stalker. 

Paul the All-round Man. Speer. 

The Life and Epistles of St. Paul. Conybeare and 

Howson. 
St. Paul, the Traveler and the Roman Citizen. Ramsay. 
The Cities of Paul. Ramsay. 
Neglected Factors in the Study of the Early Progress 

of Christianity. Orr. 
St. Paul. Iverach. 
Life and Works of St. Paul. Farrar. 
St. Paul 's Conception of Christianity. Bruce. 
Pauline Theology. Stevens. 
Apostolic Church. Thatcher. 
Apostolic Church. Bartlet. 
The Apostolic Age. Purves. 



COMMENTARIES 

The One Volume Bible Commentary. Dummelow. 
Cambridge Bible Series. (49 vols.) 
Expositor's Bible Series. (49 vols.) 
The New Century Bible. (23 vols.) 
Modern Reader's Bible. (22 vols.) 

193 



APPENDIX 

The Bible for Home and School. Edited by Mathews. 

The Churchman's Bible. 

The Westminster New Testament. 

Commentaries on the Old Testament : 

Genesis (Westminster Series). Driver. 

Genesis (International Critical Com.). Skinner. 

Exodus (Westminster Series). McNeile. 

Numbers (International Critical Com.). Gray. 

Deuteronomy (International Critical Com.). Driver. 

Judges (International Critical Com.). Moore. 

Samuel (International Critical Com.). Smith. 

Kings (Cambridge Bible). Lumby. 

Kings (Cambridge Bible). Barnes. 

Chronicles (Cambridge Bible). Barnes. 

Chronicles (International Critical Com.). Curtis. 

Ezra and Nehemiah (Cambridge Bible). Ryle. 

Esther (International Critical Com.). Paton. 

Job (New Century Bible). Peake. 

Job (International Critical Com.). Driver. (In 
preparation.) 

Psalms (Cambridge Bible). Kirkpatrick. 

Psalms (New Century Bible). Davison. (2 vols.) 

Proverbs (International Critical Com.). Toy. 

Ecclesiastes (International Critical Com.). Barton, 

Ecclesiastes (Cambridge Bible). Plumptre. 

Song of Solomon (Cambridge Bible). Harper. 

Isaiah (Cambridge Bible). Skinner. (2 vols.) 

Ezekiel (Cambridge Bible). Davidson. 

Daniel (Cambridge Bible). Driver. 

Minor Prophets (Whedon Series). Eiselen. 

194 



APPENDIX 

Commentaries on the Old Testament — Continued: 
Joel and Amos (Cambridge Bible). Driver. 
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, 

Malachi (New Century). Driver. 
ISTahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (Cambridge Bible). 

Davidson. 

Commentaries on New Testament : 
Matthew. Allen. 
Matthew. Plummer. 
Mark. Swete. 
Mark. Gould. 
Mark. Bruce. 

The Earliest Gospel (Mark). Mengies. 
Luke. Plummer. 
John. Godet. (3 vols.) 
John. Westcott. 

John. Dods. (Expositor's Greek Testament. Vol.1) 
Acts. Rackham. 
Acts. Knowling. (Expositor's Greek Testament. 

Vol. II) 
Romans. Sanday. 
Romans. Williams. 
Romans. Denney. (Expositor's Greek Testament. 

Vol. H) 
Galatians. Lightfoot. 
Ephesians and Colossians. Abbott. 
Philippians. Vincent. 
Philippians. Lightfoot. 
Colossians and Philemon. Lightfoot. 

195 



APPENDIX 

THE SOCIAL GOSPEL 

The Church and the Changing Order. Mathews. 
The Church and the Social Problem. Plantz. 
The Gospel and the Modern Man. Mathews. 
Christianity and Social Questions. Cunningham. 
Christianity and the Social Crisis. Rauschenbush. 
Social Duties from the Christian Point of View. Hen- 
derson. 
Messianic Hope in the New Testament. Mathews. 
Ecce Homo. Seeley. 
The Next Great Awakening. Strong. 
Social Teachings of Jesus. Mathews. 
Teaching of Jesus. Stevens. 
Jesus Christ and the Social Question. Peabody. 
The Approach to the Social Question. Peabody. 
Social Law in the Spiritual World. Jones. 

DEVOTIONAL BOOKS 

Devotional Use of the Holy Scriptures. Gibson. 
The Still Hour. Phelps. 

Thoughts for Every-Day Living. Babcock. 
Decision of Character. Foster. 
Leaves for Quiet Hours. Matheson. 
Times of Retirement. Matheson. 
Moments on the Mount. Matheson, 
Rests by the River. Matheson. 
Drummond's Addresses. 
Imitation of Christ, a Kempis. 

196 



APPENDIX 

Imago Christi. Stalker. 

With Christ in the School of Prayer. Murray. 

Abide in Christ. Murray. 

Prayer: Its Nature and Scope. Trumbull. 

The Master of the Heart. Speer. 

The Evangelistic Note. Dawson. 

A Call for Character. Bosworth. 

The Secret Prayer Life. Mott. 

Secret Prayer a Great Reality. Wright. 

TEACHING OF BIBLE CLASSES 

The Teacher's Philosophy in and out of School. Hyde. 

How to Teach the Bible. Gregory. 

Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull. 

Talks to Teachers. James. 

College Men and the Bible. Cooper. 

Primer on Teaching. Adams. 

The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory. 

The Teaching of Bible Classes. See. 

How to Read the Bible. Smith. 

How to Study the Bible. Torrey. 

Hints on Bible Study. Atkins. 

The Bible Hand-Book. Angus. 

Literary Study of the Bible. Moulton. 

How We Think. Dewey. 

The Pedagogical Bible School. Haslett. 

How to Study. McMurry. 

The Bible a Missionary Book. Horton, 

Starting to Teach. Foster. 

19T 



APPENDIX 

How to Make the Bible Real. King. 
Effective Leadership in Bible Classes. 
The Making of a Teacher. Brumbaugh. 
Training of the Twelve. Bruce. 
Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois. 



INTELLECTUAL AND RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS. 

The Fact of Christ. Simpson. 

Rational Living. King. 

Studies in Christianity. Bowne. 

The Essence of Religion. Bowne. 

Life Problems. 

The Field of Ethics. Palmer. 

Religious Certainty. McConnell. 

Sixty Years with the Bible. Clarke. 

How to Deal with Temptation. Speer. 

Things Fundamental. Jefferson. 

My Belief. Horton. 

Christian Evidences and Ethics. Schenck. 

Beyond the Natural Order. Best. 

Universal Elements of the Christian Religion. Hall. 

The Gospel for a World of Sin. Van Dyke. 

The Natural Law in the Spiritual World. Drummond. 

Nature and the Supernatural. Bushnell. 

Varieties of Religious Experience. James. 

Twice Born Men. Begbie. 

Souls in Action. Begbie. 

The Spiritual Life. Coe. 

198 



APPENDIX 

The Divinity of Our Lord. Liddon. 

The Right to Believe. Rowland. 

The True Doctrine of Prayer. Chamberlain. 

The Lord of Glory. Warfield. 

The Divine Reason of the Cross. Mabie. 

The World a Spiritual System. Snowden. 

The Philosophy of the Fourth Gospel. Johnston, 

To Christ Through Criticism. Seaver. 

The Main Points. Brown. 

The Substance of Faith. Lodge. 

The Gospel for an Age of Doubt. Van Dyke. 

What Is Christianity? Harnack. 

The Seeming Unreality of the Spiritual Life. King. 

Personal and Ideal Elements in Education. King. 

The Gospel and the Modem Man. Mathews. 

The Church and Modern Life. Gladden. 



199 



INDEX 



301 



INDEX 



Ameeican Bible Society, the, 5. 
Athletic Committee, the, 113. 
Atmosphere of the class, the, 78. 

Baraga Movement, the, 3. 
Bible, The, and life work, 9. 

and modern problems, 148. 

and religion, 18. 

as a means of evangelism, 88. 

assists in character forming, 
15. 

at the heart of modern reform, 
140. 

center, 98. 

Church and, 12. 

Church needs able men to 
teach, 13, 

Church's opportunity to popu- 
larize, 14. 

class, large, How to form, 
105. 

class, large, as a rival to the 
Church and Sunday-school, 
96. 

Classes in study of, 3, 4. 

classes in rural communities, 
156. 

classes, large organized, 93. 

classes, large organized, con- 
stitution and by-laws for, 
171. 

College men studying, 3. 

Evangelism through, in the 
Orient, 48. 

first book upon ethics, 15. 

gives added force to the will, 
17. 



Bible, The. 

Heathen world studying, 13. 

as helps to men in moral 
battles, 16. 

How to study, 121. 

Human interest in, xiii. 

Institute for study of, 161. 

institute. Subjects in, 24. 

institutes as conducted by stu- 
dents, 23-25. 

Interest in, signs of awaken- 
ing in the Orient, 43. 

Knowledge of, clarifies the 
vision, 10. 

Knowledge of, wanting, 12. 

Lectures on, A eeries of, 69. 

Literature of, and Bible 
habits, 125. 

Literature of, and teachers in 
the Orient, 47. 

Mastery of, necessary to the 
missionary, 12. 

Men eager to study, 100. 

most popular of books, 3. 

Output of the, in 1910, 4, 5. 

peculiarly personal, 15. 

Reference books for study of, 
128. 

secretaries, National, 46. 

Social gospel of, 139. 

students, Influences of, in the 

Orient, 51. 

Study of, xi-xv. 

Study of, among men in the 
Orient, 43. 

Study of, among students of 
all races, 47. 



903 



INDEX 



Bible, The. 

Study of, and missions, 145. 

Study of, and youth in the 
Sunday-schools, 151. 

Study of, a suggestive basis 
for vocatioij, 9, 10. 

study class, Growth of, in the 
University of Illinois, 62. 

study class in Brooklyn, 64. 

study class in New England, 
Growth of, 61. 

study class, how organized, 
66-68. 

study conference at Cornell 

University, 166. 

Cooperation the next step in, 
31. 

study corrects individual stan- 
dards, 11. 

Study courses in, and litera- 
ture of, 121. 

study courses. Reference liter- 
ature for, 190. 

study courses, A selection of, 
121. 

study, Enlisting college gradu- 
ates in church, 33. 

study, a bridge between the 
dream and fulfilment, 59. 

study. Neglect of, 12. 

Study of, growing power, 19. 

Study of. The habit of, 11. 

Study of, in China, 44, 47. 

Study of, in colleges, 23. 

Study of, in India, 45, 48. 

Study of, in Japan, 43. 

Study of, in Korea, 44, 47. 

Study of, in small classes, 75. 

Study of, in Sunday-schools, 
4, 29, 30. 

Study of, leads to life of 
prayer, 16. 

Study of, Methods for main- 
taining, 69. 



Bible, The. 

Study of, methods of asso- 
ciating the large class with 
real, 94. 

Study of, by church and col- 
lege members, cooperating 
committee for, 32. 

Study of, often fails, 60. 

Study of, rather than Bible 
reading, 122. 

Study of, Spirit of work pri- 
mary and fundamental in, 
59. 

Study of, satisfied craving for 
the recreation of the soul's 
life, 19. 

Study of, spreads out God's 
plan for human existence, 
11. 

Study of. Successful organi- 
zation and conduct of, 57. 

Study of, the secret of the 
life of the Bible class, 98. 

Study of, two elements which 
make for success in, 60. 

Study of, voluntary, 4. 

study policy for men of an 
entire community, 168. 

Studies of, suggestive not ex- 
haustive, 127. 

The church interesting men in 
the, 13. 

Theological students studying 
the, 4. 

Training classes for the study 
of, in colleges, 36. 

Why men study the, 3. 
Biblical thought and research, 

modern, 12. 
Brahman student after studying 

the Bible, 49. 
British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety, the, 5. 
Brooklyn, Bible study class in 

Y. M. C. A. in, 64. 



204 



INDEX 



Business side, the, 103. 

Characteb forming, Bible as- 
sists in, 15 ; modern call for, 
14; the, of Jesus, 17; the 
great question of the East, 52. 

Characters, "Widespread reassess- 
ment of men's, 14. 

China, Bible study in, 44, 47. 

Chinese educator studying the 
principles of Christianity, 7; 
scholar and teacher accepts 
Christianity, 49. 

Christ's life. The study of, 72. 

Christianity, Brahman student 
accepts, 49; Chinese educator 
studying principles of, 7; fail- 
ure of, 6; never studied thor- 
oughly, 7; what it is, 6, 7. 

Church, the, and the college. 
Union of Bible interests in, 
31; and the school, how work 
together, 32; and the Bible, 
12; and Bible study, 29; 
needs able men to teach the 
Bible, 13; large classes as 
rival organizations to the, 96 ; 
its opportunity to popularize 
the Bible, 14. 

College graduates in church 
Bible study, enlistment of, 33 ; 
men interested in the Bible, 
23; studying the Bible, 3; 
people, pastors and Sunday- 
school superintendents who 
can interest, 38; professors 
teaching in the church, 36; 
Union of Bible interest in the 
church and the, 31; Valuable 
contributions by graduates, 
34. 

Colleges and schools, Study of 
the Bible in, 23, 26; Train- 
ing classes in, taught by min- 
isters and lasmien, 35. 



Committees, 111. 

Constitution and by-laws of or- 
ganized classes for men, 171. 

Conviction, religious, 130. 

Cooperating Committee for Bible 
study by church and college 
members, 32. 

Cooperative Bible study, the next 
step, 31. 

Cornell University, Bible study 
conference at, 166. 

Course of study, 70. 

Details, attention to, 79. 
Discussion, 81, 116. 
Dollars, the field of, not always 
the battleground of men, 16. 

Educatiottal values of the 
Bible, the, 129. 

Employment Committees, 113. 

Ethics, the Bible the first book 
upon, 15. 

Evangelization, the entire Chris- 
tian, of Korea, 50. 

Evangelism as an objective, 87 
Bible, the, as a means to, 88 
Bible, the, in the Orient, 48 
modern, 134. 

Facijlty men teaching Bible 
classes in the church, 36. 

Faith, in Jesus, how it empowers 
the will, 19; in the New 
Testament, 18; of Jesus, 63; 
the spirit of, 61. 

Friendships, Young men must 
have, 102. 

Fundamental, the spirit of work 
primary and, 59. 

God, Men embodying the love of, 
needed in the East, 53 ; search 
of modern man for, 19. 

Growth of Bible-study classes, 
the, 61, 62. 



205 



INDEX 



Habit of Bible study, the, 11; 

help of Bible literature, 125. 
Healer, Jesus as the, 18. 
Heathen studying the Bible, 13. 
Honesty, Demand for men of, 

15. 
Hope in Jesus' presence, 18. 
Human, existence, Bible study 

spreads out God's plan for, 

11; interest in the Bible, 

xiii. 

Ideals, Jesus brought out those 

defaced, 18. 
Illinois, University of. Growth of 

Bible-study class in, 62. 
India, Bible study in, 45, 48; 

Students in, know the Bible 

better than any sacred work 

of Hinduism, 46. 
Individual, standards, how Bible 

study corrects, 11; work, 70. 
Influences of Bible students in 

the Orient, the, 51. 

Japan, Bible study in, 43. 

Jesus as healer, 18; brought out 
defaced ideals, 18; character 
of, 17; faith in, empowers the 
will, 19; the faith of, 63; 
hope in the presence of, 18; 
reached the potential energy 
of the soul, 18; the great 
magnet, 116. 

Jesus' absorbing interest in men, 
18. 

Korea, Bible study in, 44, 47; 

evangelization of, 50. 
Korean churches, filled with men 

and women, 50. 

Labob problem, the, a religious 

problem, 149. 
Laity League of Social Service, 

153. 



Leaders, must be filled with the 
spirit of victory, 63-65. 

Leadership, opportunity and 
method of Bible, 131; train- 
ing, for a state-wide cam- 
paign, 165. 

Lectures, Bible, series of, 69. 

Librarian, duties of a, 110. 

Life, Bible the book of, 14; does 
modern man know what it is, 
10; problems of, 8, 9; re- 
deemed, the student's, 16; 
work, the Bible and, 9. 

Literature, Bible, and Bible 
habits, 125 ; Bible-study 
courses and, 121, 190; native 
biblical, needed in the Orient, 
47. 

Love of God, men embodying 
the needed in the East, 53. 

Mammon gospel, faith in the, 
decreasing, 15. 

Membership committee, the, 111. 

Men eager to study the Bible, 
100 ; those embodying the love 
of God needed in the East, 
53; Jesus' absorbing interest 
in, 18; of honesty, demand 
for, 15; young, must have 
friendships, 102; young, na- 
turally religious, 100. 

Method in Bible study, the 
bridge between the dream and 
fulfilment, 59; in Bible study, 
the strong man is the great, 
64. 

Methods, for associating the 
large class with real Bible 
study, 94; for maintaining 
Bible study, 69; for union 
between church and college, 
32, 39; loose ones not suc- 
cessful, 58. 

Ministry, a teaching, 14. 



^06 



INDEX 



Missionary, mastery of the Bible 

necessary to the, 12. 
Missions, Bible study and, 145. 
Modern tendencies, 139. 
Moral battles, the Bible helps 

men in their, 16. 

Naturalness, 81. 

Neglect of Bible study, 12. 

New England, growth of a Bible- 
study class in, 61. 

New Testament, faith in the, 18 ; 
resistance force fortified by 
reading the, 17 ; teaching of 
the, 9. 

New York City, constitution of a 
Bible class in, 176. 

Objective, the adequate, 129. 

Officers, 107. 

Organization, American genius 
for, 57; meetings, 105; suc- 
cessful kinds and the conduct 
of Bible study, 57. 

Organized Bible class, a large, 
93 ; How one Bible-study class 
was, 66, 68. 

Organist, duties of the, 109. 

Orient, Bible evangelism in the, 
48 ; Bible study among men in 
the, 43; men embodying the 
love of God needed in the, 
53 ; native biblical literature 
needed in the, 47; spiritual 
reality in the, 51 ; training 
expert Bible teachers in the, 
47. 

Oxford Press, the, 6. 

Personal, the Bible peculiarly 
so, 15 ; knowledge of students, 
86; service outside the class, 
71. 

Popularity, World-wide, 3. 



Power of the Bible realized in 
the Orient, 51. 

Practical policy, Value of, 66. 

Prayer, 80; Bible study leads to 
life of, 16. 

President, duties of the, 107. 

Problems, the Bible and modern, 
148; those of life, 8, 9. 

Program at the Vanderbilt Uni- 
versity, 161; Sunday, the, of 
an organized Bible class, 163. 

Psalms of David, the, saved 
many souls, 16. 

Purpose, the large, in Bible 
study, 60. 

Question drawer, the, 115. 
Quietness, the teacher's strength 
in, 78. 

Ramabai, Pandita, 45. 
Reference books, Bible, 128. 
Reform, the Bible at the heart 

of modern, 140. 
Religion, the Bible and, 18; real 

quest for, 8. 
Religious conviction, 130 ; 

knowledge, at second hand, 7. 
Resistance force, fortified by 

reading New Testament, 17. 
Righteousness, the groundwork 

of the Bible, 15. 
Rochester, N. Y., by-laws of a 

Bible class in, 183. 
Rural communities, Bible classes 

in, 156. 

ScHOLAESHip, modern, xi. 

Schools and colleges, those study- 
ing the Bible, 26; How can 
they and the church work to- 
gether, 32. 

Secretary, the duties of the cor- 
responding, 108, duties of the 
recording, 107. 



907 



INDEX 



Secretaries, national Bible ones, 
46. 

Service, definite, for members 
of a Bible class, 104; State 
Bible Conference emphasizes, 
165 ; the Bible as a means to, 
139. 

Serviceableness, 86. 

Small Bible class, the advantage 
of a, 75; small classes, Bible 
study in, 75. 

Social adjunct, 101; committee, 
112; gospel of the Christian 
Scriptures, 139; Laity League 
of Social Service, 153 ; re- 
sponsibility, arousal of, 132. 

Societies, Bible, 4, 5. 

Souls, the Psalms of David 
saved many, 16. 

Spirit and niethod, 57; the, of 
faith, 61; the, of victory, 63; 
of work, primary and funda- 
mental, 59. 

Spiritual reality in the Orient, 
51. 

State Bible Conference empha- 
sizes service, 165. 

Statistics, Bible study, 3-5, 27- 
29, 62, 126, 144; those for 
the Sunday-school, 152. 

Students, conducting Bible insti- 
tutes, 23,25; of all races 
studying Bible, 27. 

Study, a course of, 70. 

Success, two elements which 
make for, 60. 

Suggestion of first importance, 
93. 

Sunday-school, Bible study and 
youth in the, 151; statistics 
of the, 152; studying the 
Bible in the, 4, 29, 30; the 
large class as a rival to the, 
96. 



Sunday session, the, 114. 

Teacher, the, of a small class, 
75; the strong, a first essen- 
tial of the Bible class, 75. 

Teacher's strength in quietness, 
the, 78. 

Teachers, training expert ones in 
the Orient, 47. 

Teaching ministry, 14, 131. 

Temperance question, the, in the 
light of Christian revelation, 
149. 

Tendencies, modern, 139. 

Theological students studying 
the Bible, 4. 

Treasury, the, Bible class having 
an individual, 109. 

Union of Bible interest in 
church and college, 31, 32-39. 

Vanderbilt University, pro- 
gram at, 161. 

Yice-president, duties of, 107. 

Victory, Leaders must be filled 
with the spirit of, 33, 65. 

Vision, the, Bible knowledge 
clarifies, 10. 

Visiting or Attendance commit- 
tee, 112. 

Vocation, Bible study a sugges- 
tive basis for, 9, 10. 

Will, the, Bible gives added 

force to the, 17. 
World-wide popularity, 3. 
Work, individual, 70; spirit of, 

primary and fundamental, 59. 

Y. M. C. A., Bible study in the, 
3; Bible-study class in the 
Brooklyn, 64. 

Youth in the Sunday-school, Bi- 
ble study and, 151. 



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